Source: Priestmangoode
For rail commuters, taking the train can be a real grind – especially if the journey involves switching trains and shuffling on and off platforms.
But what if we could avoid the drudgery of making connections by stepping from one moving train to another that was travelling onwards to our destination?
It sounds like something out of a high-octane action movie, but this is the vision of a British transport architect, who believes his ‘Moving Platforms’ concept is the right way to bring rail travel into the 21st century.
Paul Priestman, from London design consultancy Priestmangoode wants to do away with station platforms and quite literally, turn the train into a moving platform.
His concept envisages city centre trams linking up with a network of high-speed trains that run on lines passing outside towns and cities across a continent.
‘Feeder’ trams would pick up passengers from local stops to meet the high-speed trains. As they near each other, the tram would speed up and the train would slow so that they can connect with a docking system while both are travelling at the same speed.
Source: Priestmangoode
The train and tram would then dock while in motion, allowing people to step between the trains through a dedicated ‘transfer’ walkway.
Source: Priestmangoode
Once the doors have closed, the tram and train would separate – with the train continuing on its journey and the tram returning to the city to repeat the step.
The concept could also enable high-speed rail trains to link up, Priestman says.
It may be a radical idea, but Priestman believes that you have to think big to look at alternative ways of travel.
He said: “I can’t believe that across the world we are spending billions on high speed rail making it run on a network that was invented in the 19th Century.
“I’m under no illusion that Moving Platforms is a big idea, but if we really want high speed rail to be successful and change the way we travel, getting people off the roads and reducing the number of short haul flights, it is imperative that the infrastructure we use works with, not against, this new technology to enable a seamless passenger journey from start to destination.
“The days of the super-hub train station are over, connectivity is the way forward.”
Whether it will ever see the light of day remains to be seen.
But what is certain – at least for British rail commuters – is that no matter how we travel by train in future, we’re more likely to be standing than in a seat.
