Interesting thanks. A problem with this has been pointed out by David. Anot= her is that you could only leave the train.=20 Coupling a coach on a running train would be very dangerous. With some very= sofisticated help from technology (or some late 18th century boldness :-))= it could surely be done, but it would need to be failproof and the space n= eeded to do it would be great, increasing proportionally with the running t= rain's speed. Surely undoable in cities or urban areas. These days a modern train can stop and restart in very few seconds, thanks = to the traction tecnology but also to the train and platform designs. It's = even faster for trams and such.=20 Besides the fact that a decrease in the trains running times would mean mor= e trains but then you would have to find the $$$ to buy those trains, the t= echnology to allow them to run faster, the place to build the needed infras= tructure, the terminal stations where to fit them in, etc...=20 Actually, these are today's problems. Trains could perform better, but the = infrastructure can't handle them. Old (or new old-style-built) tracks desig= ns, old block systems, single track lines, no place/no money/no political w= ill to build new infrastructure... Greetings from Switzerland, land of trolley buses... Rossano Il giorno 29 ott 2017, alle ore 00:34, ha scritto: >> Back in my youth British mail trains had a sytem for picking up mail bag= s >> without stopping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DUN9GxmtfX90 >> Surely this could be adapted to pick up passengers :-) >>>=20 >>> I've always thought could be done with trains, whether commuter or >>> long distance, would be to have a self-powered train car at each >>> station. People wanting to get on the train would board this car. >>> People on the train who wanted a particular stop would get into the >>> last car. As the train approached the station, the last car would >>> disconnect and roll into the station. The car that was in the station w= ould >> then catch up with the train and join it. >>> Passengers not wanting the next stop would move into the rest of the >>> train. What slows trains down, in my opinion, is all the stops. This >>> would avoid that delay. >=20 > I surprised David didn't mention that British railways (back in the days = of steam trains) had what were known as 'slip coaches' which did almost exa= ctly this. The last coach on the train would be uncoupled and then a guard = on the slip coach would apply braking to bring the coach to a halt in the s= tation. Once everyone had got off the local shunting engine would move the = coach into a local siding. I never saw them in operation, just seen descrip= tions in books. I don't know how the coaches were picked on the return jour= ney, which had to involve a stopping train, I guess it would be possible to= load the coach on a side platform, then when the train came along couple t= he full coach to the train. >=20 > There was a certain amount of danger to the process of slipping a coach f= rom the train, and a considerable amount of skill on the part of the guard = to uncouple the coach at the right place and then get the braking just righ= t to stop in the platform, especially in some of the pea-souper fogs that a= bounded in the UK back then. I was reading a piece recently where the guard= on the slip coach was describing exactly this problem. If you didn't stop = in the station then no-one knew where the coach was, had it not uncoupled, = had it not made the station, or had it had some other problem? Any of these= could result in a blocked line which had the potential to result in a sign= ificant accident. >=20 >=20 >=20 > --=20 > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .