Ideas to make the London Underground better Part 1
I'll start with the most out there crazy idea...
The biggest problem on the London Underground is overcrowding. Being
a lean thinker, I came to the conclusion that the problem is because
the underground is essentially a batch and queue push system.
Obviously putting a single piece flow pull system in place would fix
this. My theory is that this could be achieved by getting rid of the
trains and replacing them with a conveyor belt system.
The problem with this is that you need to go a little faster than
5MPH. The answer to that problem is that you have a multi belt system
with 5 (or more) belts running parallel, each being 5MPH faster than
the one next to it. In theory you could travel at up to around 35MPH
without accelerating any more than stepping onto an escalator.
Likewise, decelerating no faster than stepping off an escalator.
Of course this theory isn't without flaws but there's nothing that
couldn't be fixed. Obviously there would need to be a fail safe/fail
slow system in place and a few things would have to change with
regards to station layout etc. Probably a billion other things I
haven't thought about but it is a start...
Whaddya reckon Boris?
See attached pic for a very rough sketch of how it might work.
Edits
Based on the information given at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/uk/transport-london/section-7.html I have drawn the following sketchy conclusion:
The average train speed is currently 20.6MPH. Given that we're getting rid of queues we could safely have a max speed of 20MPH. If we have 6 belts that would give us a speed difference between belts of only 3.33r MPH. The difference in speed shouldn't cause too much inertia to stay standing.
We might not even need that many belts. Tests need to be done to work out a safe step on speed.
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