Rip the rails out and have moving walkways?

[Howardh]

http://mentalfloss.com/uk/design/33356/could-londons-circle-line-be-replaced-by-moving-walkways

Could London's Circle Line Be Replaced by Moving Walkways?

An architecture firm proposes ditching trains for people movers.

The London Underground doesn’t have to necessarily be a system of trains. That’s the argument presented by NBBJ, an architecture firm (and the designers behind the shadowless skyscraper), which has proposed replacing one of the city's tube lines with a moving walkway.

The plan focuses on swapping out the Circle Line’s 17 miles of train tracks for three different lanes of travelators, like those common to airport terminals. Each lane would move at a different speed, so you could enter the track at the slowest (3 mph) and move your way up to the fastest (15 mph).


The designers posit that this mode of travel would actually be faster than the current train route, which reaches 20 mph at its fastest point, and is often overcrowded and delayed. Trains must come to a full stop for passengers to exit, but a moving walkway never stops...

Hmmm, not sure about it for the Central Line....but would love such an overhead system to get us from Vic to Picc in Manchester.

Doesn't look particulary safe, people with luggage falling over at 15mph? Has anyone come across such a system (two/three different speeds in tandem) and what thoughts??

 

[Geezertronic]

Pie in the sky to me. And as the guys at RailNews point out amongst other things:

The truth is that there is no such thing as a Circle Line, because it is really a Circle Service. Nearly all its route is shared with Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City or District services. There are just a couple of short lengths at the south western and eastern ‘corners’ which are used exclusively by Circle trains.

 

[MarkRedon]

Something similar was tried at Paris Montparnasse on the very long underground walkway from the current location of Montparnasse Station back to the original location, 185 metres to the east, which is where the Metro stations for line 4 and 12 sit under the closed original mainline station. They tried 12 kph, then dropped it to 9 kph, then replaced it with a normal-speed walkway because there were too many complaints about safety and reliability.

 

[thelem]

It sounds just about doable when it's quiet, but can you imagine what it would be like as you approached a busy station, where you had a limited time to find a space on the 10mph lane and then again down to 5mph, while there were people trying to do the opposite?

 

[jbqfc]

that would be impossible to use by people like my wife who walks with crutches

 

[Howardh]

It sounds just about doable when it's quiet, but can you imagine what it would be like as you approached a busy station, where you had a limited time to find a space on the 10mph lane and then again down to 5mph, while there were people trying to do the opposite?

Wonder if people would treat it like trains, stand on the outside lane and put their bags on the inner one......

Just lurve that!!!

 

[3141]

Reminds me of Robert Heinlein's story "The roads must roll". In that there's a larger number of moving strips, the fastest travelling at 100 mph.

Maybe such a scheme would work if it was a new-build system - but imagine the chaos for however many years it took to convert an existing railway to new walkways. You'd have to consider the entrances and exits as well as the "track" itself. Impossible.

 

[ian1944]

Wonder if people would treat it like trains, stand on the outside lane and put their bags on the inner one......

Just lurve that!!!

No, they would stand in bulk on the middle one.

 

[thelem]

Wonder if people would treat it like trains, stand on the outside lane and put their bags on the inner one......

Just lurve that!!!

They might stand on the outside lane, with their back pack overhanging the middle lane, ready to hit anyone standing in the middle lane.

 

[Polarbear]

And another thing - how would you manage the passenger flow when you were converting the railway to a moving walkway?

Someone evidently has far too much time on their hands if this is the best they can come up with...!!:roll:

 

[Greenback]

What a ridiculous idea!

 

[GatwickDepress]

Someone's design firm is looking - and succeeded at - getting free publicity...

 

[Greenback]

Someone's design firm is looking - and succeeded at - getting free publicity...

That's undoubtedly what this is all about. However, I question whether publicity gained for such a silly proposal is actually going to be worth much.

 

[fairysdad]

This is worse than that half-baked idea to turn the disused tunnels into cycleways...

 

[StateOfPlay]

Next they will be suggesting people could drive their cars on the underground!

 

[Jonny]

The only downside is that the walkways have to keep going for safety reasons; a sudden stop/stall poses a risk of tripping and thereby hurting the people on the walkway. If it does stop, it would have to stop slowly to prevent tripping.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Next they will be suggesting people could drive their cars on the underground!

Well, you could (in theory) have a motorail service. Theory being the key word. In theory...

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

How much would this cost? What a waste of money as London is getting new S-Stock trains anyway and why would they are to abandon a major line to a conveyor belt. The Waterloo and City line looks to be the only one which could be converted, but even that's a downgrade to an unproven form of transport.
This reminds me of the 'Paving over the Tracks' plan from early in the year.

 

[34D]

How much would this cost? What a waste of money as London is getting new S-Stock trains anyway and why would they are to abandon a major line to a conveyor belt. The Waterloo and City line looks to be the only one which could be converted, but even that's a downgrade to an unproven form of transport.
This reminds me of the 'Paving over the Tracks' plan from early in the year.

I'd best make the oft quoted suggestion of sending the w&c line class 482 trains to the central line then.

 

[WestCoast]

A very different terrain to London, but Hong Kong makes extensive use of walkways, escalators and travelators as a 'mode of public transport'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central–Mid-Levels_escalator_and_walkway_system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Elevated_Walkway

Sometimes the choice between rail and moving walkway is not such an outrageous suggestion as the Circle Line.

I can think of one instance in the UK where they "ripped the rails up" and put in a moving walkway - that's at Gatwick Airport South Terminal. The original transit system from the Terminal to the Satellite Gates was removed and replaced by long moving walkways.

At Manchester Airport, they chose moving walkways to transport people from the teminals to the rail/bus station, whereas at Birmingham Airport a similar distance from the terminal to rail station/NEC is covered by an automated transit system.

 

[jopsuk]

I can think of one instance in the UK where they "ripped the rails up" and put in a moving walkway - that's at Gatwick Airport South Terminal. The original transit system from the Terminal to the Satellite Gates was removed and replaced by long moving walkways.

But that wasn't a circular route that also forms part of several other longer routes. The scale is incomparable- the old south terminal shuttle track was slightly longer than two S7 trains!

 

[LexyBoy]

Robert Rankin got there first, in one of his books the Circle Line had become a continuous linked train moving at a constant walking pace.

Still, it has the advantage that it would be self-lubricating, with the blood of those unfortunate enough to come a cropper on it. There would be a 6 mph difference between the lanes - a fairly quick jogging pace...

Any fule kno the real solution is to make use of technology developed for the LHC to levitate people and propel them through the tunnels at 0.99c.

 

[stut]

[deleted - my mistake!]