B. Rajaram FNAE Dt 25th August 2007
Director Atri Knowledge Embedded Infrastructure Lab P ltd. Hyderabad
Transport mode for inter-city connectivity for people and goods: a wise choice!
The requirements for inter-city connectivity must be first understood before offering a solution. The common mistake is one falls in love with an available product, then go about canvassing the same without concern for its suitability socially, technically and financially.
Let us take two cases: cities within 500 km and those at around 1000km distance.
The social requirements are environment friendly, least time consuming, and energy efficient system, which is affordable and comfortable.
The point to point total travel time is important- one should talk of heart of city to heart of another city. There is no point in rushing and reaching a city outskirts in two hours and then spend another two hours to commute in the city to reach your destination. Inter-modal transfers should be minimised and practically seamless travel has to be assured in our design of such transport system
The technical considerations are feasibility for the prevailing ground conditions, reliability and availability, assuring safety of public carriage of goods and services, principally to meet the social requirements.
The financial requirement is that at the price chargeable under the prevailing economic conditions, the capital and maintenance cost of the technology adopted be preferably a financially viable proposition to avoid if possible, or minimize the public un remunerative expenditure.
Innovations in technology, suddenly opens up new dimensions, some times disruptive to existing established choices- and advantage should be taken if it serves the needs as defined as above. Maturity level of a technology to assess safety is necessary. Any innovation which merely uses all existing proven time tested technologies, which is currently in use- becomes a design solution and not research project.
We may try to assign some typical numbers and create a matrix to have a perspective of the various concerns.
In a table form the interaction of various factors to make a wise decision is presented, for the appreciation of a layman.
Even rail based system recently delivered at fraction of price of Maglev, similar order of speeds in France. Maglev is not viable with any amount of gap funding. China is hesitating to extend the service- after the experience of running the first commercial route.
Let us examine degree of maturity of the available choices too, in a tabular form for quick appreciation:
| Technology | Roads-rubber tyred systems incl.mono-rail | Railway | Railway-improved : Sky-wheels | Maglev | Airways |
| Moving units to carry people | Road vehicles /coach systems are well established | Steel tyred running bogies and coaches well established | Same steel tyred running bogies, with light weight coaches suspended well established , being the same as in railways | Experimental ones –just implemented in one commercial project. | Well established norms of working and stabilized technology. |
| Guide way | The road way technology with signals well established | The railway with signals & train control is well established system | The same signal & train control systems as used in railway applies here too- hence well established. | Guide way is an active one- which drives the coach- and still more used in non-commercial systems. | Airport control and systems well established. |
In Maglev, the only short commercial line ( China) had one fire accident and on the track in Germany 29 persons traveling all died( 2006) even at 130 kmph! The incident indicates instability conditions can be more severe at even low speed as compared railway.
Wise decision makers, do not actually need complex arguments of proclaimed “experts”- the writing on the wall is clear- there is no way one should think of Maglev and rail based high speed trains at 300kmph serves our purpose- more effectively if one chooses improved rail-wheel system which cannot separate from each other. The only draw back is India innovated the Skybus based on Sky-wheels, which runs against the popular belief that only an advanced foreign country should innovate.
Social
| | Pollution free | Least land space | 500km in two hours | 1000km in 4 hours | Financial |
| | | | | | |
| Rubber-tyred systems /roads or mono-rail( it is also rubber tyred) | If hydro carbons are used- pollution occurs. | At loading density of typical 1 to 2 T per lineal meter, space is needed more for heavier through puts | Not possible to achieve this objective | Not possible | Marginally viable- needs gap funding |
| Rail-based systems: Rail based Conventional system- where wheels may escape the guiding track | Can be pollution free electrical traction | At capable loading density of typical 5 to 7 T per lineal meter the space needs much less as compared to tuber tyred systems. | Yes – speeds of 250 to 300 kmph possible. But dedicated for passengers only No freight | Yes possible ONLY passengers- NOT freight | Needs heavy viability gap funding –consequential risk mitigation for wheels jumping off- makes the designs highly expensive |
| Rail based Sky-wheels system : where wheels cannot escape the guiding track- typical example Skybus | Same – pollution free 3 ph-electrical traction- can adopt to hydrogen cells or even magnetic levitation if economical, with the same civil infrastructure. | Capable of 5 to 7 t/m loading density designs. | Yes speeds of the same order- but can be easily designed to carry freight too- if containerized. | Yes- both freight and passengers can be handled. | Since wheels don’t escape the track- a major break through, the costs earlier incurred to mitigate this risk, are saved. So capital costs saved and freight also adds to additional streams of revenue. Requires almost no viability gap funding. |
| Magnetic Levitation ( Maglev) systems a. Transrapid German- Electro Magnetic Suspension System (EMS) | Pollution free- | Not for heavy loadings- 1 to 2t/m but high speeds. Obstructions cause serious accidents: two accidents more than 29 people died. | High speeds possible- even 500 km per hour but used at 400km only. Only passengers- no freight | Yes can do better- but an aircraft can travel at twice the speed! | It is just out of world investment- even Germany is seeking European Union assistance being unable to fund from own resources! |
| b.Japanese Electro Dynamic Suspension systems- super cooled magnets | Not commercial | | | | |
| c. American : Inductrack systems : normal temp magnets | Not commercial | | | | |
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