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This scheme has three aspects
1. A series of straight horizontal deep tunnels radiating from a hub and hopefully remaining in Sydney's sandstone. A lone train yo-yo's back and forth in each at high speed.
2. A special machine to bore the tunnels. This appears to me to be a rotating drum holding two cutting heads. Eddie claims the trailing belt mechanism is unique and eliminates the time lost lengthening the run of belting as the TBM moves forward.
3. A train consisting of cars similar to a 1920's charabanc. This is dictated by the small diameter tunnel. Unusual bogie and coupling proposals are used to reduce mass.
The scale of this scheme will probably scare politicians and bureaucrats. Nobody has proposed doing anything on this scale for the Sydney CBD, let alone the infrastructure cinderalla that is Parramatta.
It may get people thinking and parts of it may be used to good effect-probably with a greater diameter, over shorter distances and with some deviation in depth and bearing. It could even influence the scheme below.
The cross between public and private transport often occurs on the roads, but nowadays we do not see private passenger carriages on rails and rarely even booked compartments. The Bishop Austrans system may be the most private on rails if anybody takes it up. The people at
Washington State University call it Group Rapid Transit.
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AUSTRANS continued
A non-government way to finance development?
The low radius turns, steep gradients and loading gauge of Austrans should make it ideal as an industrial conveyor for pallets and bins within factory and warehouse properties. Expanding businesses whose premises are on both sides of a road would find it very convenient.
Putting switches in such track would allow Austrans to build up the thousands of cycles they will need to gain accreditation to carry passengers. Developing the switch to practcal high speed operation would give Austrans an advantage over most alternative fixed systems. These are notorious for clumsy switching mechanisms. |
| I attended the first of the open days on 10 February, 2004. The system is still not ready for the open market and they are hoping for somebody with deep pockets to finance "application specific" development. This looks like a government as low speeds in the development phase (especially through switches), would have little appeal as a taxi or private car alternative.
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Start close to home?I have suggested to the people at Bishop Austrans that a run from their Chullora site to Lidcombe station along the boundary between Rookwood cemetery and the TAFE and University of Western Sydney campuses would be a good start. Of course the State Government would be expected to foot the bill.
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They have prepared videos of possible straight line feeders to heavy rail or long dense activity runs such as Queensland's Gold Coast. Even Block signalling is being envisaged at this stage. I imagine the blocks would be broken up by automatics. There is apparently a possible full automation software system being developed by the CSIRO. I do not know if they have looked at the software used by the West Virginia University system.
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EXTENDING THE PILOT AT RIGHT
If this pilot was a success in terms of reliability and capital cost there would be much scope to continue it southwards. You could follow the freight lines to Belmore stadium and then to the station. With greater ambition you could have an elevated line along median strips to Bankstown station, thence Bankstown Airport, another UWS campus and Panania station. This would give a rail link to Mascot airport.
From the Lidcombe end you could extend to Olympic Park.
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The direct route between the two red zones offers no traffic. A diversion to the south would tap factory and warehouse employees. There may even be a further TAFE establishment on the former railway land.
Just about any decent length of Austrans track in a heavily populated area will bring heavy rail enthusiast patronage. The scheme above would be mainly elevated and give great views of Pacific National operations as well as historic rail sites.
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| The system will only appeal as private transport where the total number of
possible origins and destinations is very low. This is similar to the ideal conditions for fixed public transport |
The promoters wish Austrans to fulfil almost all urban people movements. It will be difficult convincing anybody to tackle a vast metropolitan area in one hit. The building over a decade of several islands of Austrans based on Universities, gated communities, military establishments etc would make joining them and expanding metro-wide quite feasible.
Unfortunately, a large metropolitan area could easily end up with incompatible systems.
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| This suggests resort islands, heritage precincts or gated communities where they have decided to ban most forms of private passenger vehicles. One prime contractor based in Australia should be able to have eight projects under way at a time, starting a new one every three months, completing commissioning in two years. |
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| The promoters may be onto the next best thing to a local start with their Singapore feasibility study. The island state has discouraged metal bashing and similar industries, so an Aussie export is a possibility. |
Finance from the Federal and State Governments could prove fickle. Some smart journalist has only to write "why have we no security on our trains while the pollies spend a fortune on this fairground ride?" and they will run scared. (but a few years unpublicised use in amusement parks could be a great and cheap proving ground) Aussie venture capitalists are almost non existent, and certainly not there for the years involved in Austrans. |
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There are many other systems covering much of the same functionality. If there is to be a large market for Personal Rapid Transit or related schemes, it might well be taken by standard minibuses placed on pavement guideways and fitted with sensors. One selling point for Bishop Austrans is that the low cross section and low curve radius make it a possible upgrade if a cheaper system becomes overloaded. |
One way to finance development of the bogie would be to interest NASA. When space station components are produced on the moon, there will need to be reliable transport from the quarry to the smelter (powderer?), the fabricator and onto the railgun for firing into orbit. Rail is attractive for low energy usage and less tendency to bounce. The grip wheel would be the big attraction with Austrans. |
I may be doing this project a disservice in suggesting NASA as a funding source. The published material indicates the design team is aiming for perfection and already incorporating aircraft techniques in the body. The vehicles may have an ex-factory cost many times that of mass produced minibuses. To look to the railway rolling stock industry for inspiration could lead to increased mass. |
The Bishop car industry connection has already resulted in a vehicle that cannot operate in both directions. This complicates extension of single track spurs into low density residential areas. |
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A Royal Hotel Station
Improving the Hunter
Eric Tierney's OPENING SCREEN
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WILL DWELL TIME BE THE LIMITING FACTOR?
We are familiar with this being at least as important as acceleration, deceleration and cruising speed in Metro type operations. Having stations on sidings accessed at cruising speed will not remove the problem if a high proportion of vehicles wish to access a given station. There will be a limiting "headway" in the system for each possible destination as well as the conventional limiting headway on the cruising loops.
I presume the system software will delay allocating a vehicle for travel to a particular station if it would result in more than two vehicles being in the loop at the same time.
It was indicated at the February 2004 Open Day that no Austrans system software had been written but there should be no difficulty obtaining something suitable. That written by Boeing for the West Virginia University system would be a possibility. They have offline stations with multiple platforms at some high demand locations.
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