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by pas 3169 days ago
The problem is, that it's veeeery low density if only a few people sit in one car.

Sure, with increased efficiency and better energy economics, that's not a problem.

1 comments

Couldn't you just make smaller trains that fit in the same tunnels?

Sure tons of cost for R&D but just because the tunnels are smaller doesn't mean they could only be used for cars in the long term.

That appears to be the intention of sorts. Sleds that hold numerous passengers (8-10?).

You can see one in the CG demo, in the first few seconds of the video, on the right:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5V_VzRrSBI

also at 0:48
And rewatching the video, I wonder... currently a subway / metro car holds 50-100 people (and there are about 5-7 carriages linked), but subways follow each other at best 3-5 minutes. (Or ~1-2 in Japan in rush hour.)

So about 250 - 700 people are moved in 3 minutes, that's 80-230 per minute. If sleds follow each other by let's say 2-3 seconds, and each car holds 1-8 people, then that's 20-240 people per minute. With the added benefit better granularity, and you don't have to switch lines, metros, you don't even have to leave your seat.