What’s a Gadgetbahn? (2017)
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What’s a Gadgetbahn? (2017)
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Re: What’s a Gadgetbahn? (2017)
#2A key aspect of Gadgetbahns is they are always Not Trains™ and the reason for that is because trains are old tech that is hard to hype, but moreso because hard data already exists for how expensive trains are to build and Gadgetbahn advocates would rather have the luxury of pulling numbers out of their ass.
Re: What’s a Gadgetbahn? (2017)
#3AM/FM is an engineer's term distinguishing the inevitable clunky real-world faultiness of "Actual Machines" from the power-fantasy techno-dreams of "Fscking Magic."
This applies with the gadgetbahn. It is best when a gadgetbahn doesn't actually work properly, is slightly dilapidated and from a future that never happened. There used to be a monorail at Birmingham Airport (UK) that took people to the trains or maybe to the exhibition centre. This eventually was scrapped but for a while it provided visitors with something to talk about. Rather than discuss the food on the flight (yawn) you could discuss the monorail. I thought the monorail added great value and was well worth the trouble of its existence just because it provided people with a little conversation starter. Heck, I am talking about it now, decades on. Therefore it is well worth any city getting a gadgetbahn rather than some giant Ferris Wheel to put them on the map. A gadgetbahn can give the illusion of being 'business travel' and serious in a way that something like the London Eye cannot.
Re: What’s a Gadgetbahn? (2017)
#4AM/FM is an engineer's term distinguishing the inevitable clunky real-world faultiness of "Actual Machines" from the power-fantasy techno-dreams of "Fscking Magic." This applies with the gadgetbahn. It is best when a gadgetbahn doesn't actually work properly, is slightly dilapidated and from a future that never happened. There used to be a monorail at Birmingham Airport (UK) that took people to the trains or maybe to…
Gadgetbahns are nice pluses assuming unlimited resources, but in reality they end up taking limited resources away from other projects or bread-and-butter services. Conversation starters don't really pay the bills.
Detroit's PeopleMover is a useless toy gadgetbahn that was expensive and served not a lot while the citywide bus system literally fell to pieces.
The arguments around monorail vs light rail in Seattle during the '90s and '00s probably set back transit back a good decade.
Hyperloop/AVs are currently being used as talking points across the United States as an argument to put off public transportation investments for decades more.
In some cases they even get in the way of things; Sydney tore its city center monorail down to build a useful light-rail link for commuters instead.
Re: What’s a Gadgetbahn? (2017)
#5One comment on the article is particularly apt: “And remember: monorails, maglevs, and now hypeloops and robot cars are the transportation of the future! Always have been, always will be!”
Re: What’s a Gadgetbahn? (2017)
#6Isn’t that a name of the zone in WoW? Or am I thinking Gadgetzan?
Re: What’s a Gadgetbahn? (2017)
#7I don't care what gets built, but the province really needs more trains. "The market is too small", people tell me. But then I see all the cars on the highway between Montreal and Sherbrooke and I'm pretty sure there is enough people there to fill a train every 1-2 hour. What the current prime minister really wants is just more room for cars (see "3e lien") . The "much more modern things" (than trains) are probably just a way to keep us thinking & talking while not building train lines for another 3 years.
Re: What’s a Gadgetbahn? (2017)
#8nearly all passenger trains are gadgetbahns, automobiles are much easier to scale and likely more environmentally friendly when occupancies on the train are low
Re: What’s a Gadgetbahn? (2017)
#9Yeah, hyperloops. Going to be insanely cheap. Right. The one route that might have made sense, Dubai to Abu Dhabi, seems to not be happening. That was over empty flat desert, and had government support, so it might have been built.
Monorails are a working technology, but still niche. China has 140Km or so. Japan has about 80Km. They're useful when you have to cram a transit system into a built-up city. The switch problem has been solved. But there's still little standardization; each is a one-off.
BART started as a gadgetbahn. Active suspension. Solid state motor control. Computerized train control. Very fancy. All three of those systems had major problems in the early years. Forty years later, everybody has those features.
Japan is building a maglev from Tokyo to Nagoya and on to Osaka. It makes sense there. Those are Japan's three biggest urban areas, and they're in a line. There's a mountain range in the way, and so much tunneling is required (about 250Km) that the tunneling cost is more than the maglev cost. 45Km of the route is already running in test, so most of the debugging is already done. Started in 2007, planned opening 2027, coming along nicely.
The Morgantown (WV) personal rapid transit system, built in the 1960s, is still running. Last year it got a refresh - new electronics and propulsion. Works OK, but was never cost-effective.
Re: What’s a Gadgetbahn? (2017)
#10nearly all passenger trains are gadgetbahns, automobiles are much easier to scale and likely more environmentally friendly when occupancies on the train are low
Is there a source on that? I would expect an electrically propelled train to be extremely efficient from an emissions standpoint and to have far far lower emissions when occupied, enough to offset running a few empty ones.