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London Unveils New Driverless Subway Trains
MikeChino writes London just unveiled its next-generation subway trains — and they're sleek, 100% automated, and WiFi-equipped. UK-based design studio Priestmangoode teamed up with Transport for London to develop the trains over a period of 3 years, and they feature open and airy interiors inspired by aviation design.
We had those (except wifi) in our city (Torino, little more than 800k people in northen Italy) for the last 8 years. Where is the news?
Driverless subways exits in other cities for a while now. And this is definitely one of those things, where you can automate a lot out of a system.
And on the day of unveiling, the immediate comment from the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union was "we don't like driverless trains". Why? Because the drivers are members of that union. Nuff said really.
Driverless trains have worked fine on the Docklands Light Railway for years, about time we switched the tube over.
Seems like there are few seats, but I guess most people will stand.
Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
I'm not an engineer, but I always wondered why trains tend to be designed like a wall. Only high-speed trains are actually wedge shaped to be aerodynamic.
I would imagine that a subway train, acting like a "piston" would work better if it were more aerodynamic and not have to overcome a lot of pressure within the tunnel.
Can anyone explain the reasons behind this design?
They are piston shaped on purpose, they actually are the main way to cause ventilation of air in/out of the underground.
TFL are still in the middle of total network conversion to cabless - so far it's only taken thirty years!
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
I'm glad they'll now use dynamic electronic screens for ads! The old flat paper displays weren't just too restful for me to truly enjoy my underground trips...
Why?
2 main reasons:
- On the really old lines there is only about 6 inches between the train and the tunnel wall , there is NO escape walkway. So in an emergency a member of staff WILL be needed to evacuate passengers from the front or rear of the train and walk them along the track.
- When the tube gets really busy its virtually impossible for anyone to walk the length of the train inside so any staff might as well be in front driving it , or at least monitoring it in a cab.
....or trips on the countless other metro systems that already have a single 'continuous' carriage? Also many cities have articulated buses?
Looks good though.
Why would the London Underground have subway trains?
Tube trains, sure!
Underground trains? Why not!
Subway trains? What do you think we are? Merkins?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V...
As I understand it, the new trains are *capable* of being driverless... meaning they can also have drivers, and the plan is for them to retain drivers, initially at least. Anyone who knows anything about the history of LU will know that the spectre of driverless trains is something the unions (the RMT particularly, personified by the late Bob Crow) have been trying to resist for years. This is a smart move by the Mayor of London and the Conservative govermnent, like it or not - I imagine that the trains will have drivers for a few years, and whenever they strike, as they inevitably will, the trains will be able to operate as normal without them - and everyone will realise the drivers are not needed. There will be years of legal wrangling and eventually those staff will get nice fat payoffs and our trains will not be able to go on strike any more (Robocop anyone?) - and everyone will be happier.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/11150671/New-driverless-tube-trains-unveiled-by-TFL.html
One thing brought up this week was something they called Polanyi's Paradox -- the ability to do things without actually knowing exactly how they're done, what Polanyi I think called tacit knowledge. Riding a bicycle was an example -- you can try to codify it and tell someone how to ride a bicycle, but they won't actually be able to ride a bicycle until they learn.
It plays a role in trying to figure out what things can be automated there are categories of tasks that despite their apparent simplicity defy automation.
I'm less concerned about the gains to automation than I am in the way that displaced workers (and future) workers are treated in the economy. I don't think it's reasonable that the current "system" of brief unemployment insurance followed by basically spiraling unemployment and poverty is tenable. It seems to be just another way of privatizing the gains for business while socializing the losses, whether through cash payments or paying for the effects of poverty.
Nor is just saying "well, new technologies will create new kinds of jobs" -- that's true, but saying "some new and different jobs will be created" seems to be a kind of a reliance on magical thinking.
Speaking as a Londoner, London has an underground system also known as the tube.
It has no subway or transit.
London has lots of things called subways. But they're subterranean pedestrian walkways, not train systems.
Uh... no. That underground system known as "The Tube" is, by definition, a rapid transit system. Also, it fits almost any reasonable North American definition of a subway other than using as a proper noun to refer to one specific underground rail system. Since you didn't capitalize the term, nor did you use it in any context where a proper noun would have been implied by the surrounding grammar, one can only conclude that you are therefore simply factually incorrect. Saying that London doesn't have one just because people who live in London don't call it that is like saying that there are no elevators in London, nor people wear pants in London, just because the UK has different words for those specific terms, which even at best can only be taken as some sort of an attempt at trying to be funny, but it is still factually incorrect. If you are using a word in a sentence, then you presumably know what that term means, and that meaning is just as applicable to what London has as what can be found in North America.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada has had driverless trains since 1985
If you believe a London Underground train could get to 120mph, I've got a nice set of title deeds to the Houses of Parliament I can sell you at a very reasonable price :-)
This isn't a new thing - it's been done before...
I was working in Copenhagen about 8 years ago and the metro there was driverless; the London Docklands Light Railway (DLR) has been driverless for years.
Cue strikes in 3,2,1
Yes, but in the US there is Cobra, so you get to pay a huge amount of money to have health insurance while you are unemployed! Awesome!
http://www.acetonestudio.com
Idiot. Cobra lets you retroactively buy insurance for 3 months after going off an employer plan.
Being able to retroactively buy insurance IS FREE INSURANCE.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
nor people wear pants in London
My god man, do you think everyone in London goes commando?
I wear pants, but like every true Englishman[*], I wear them under my *trousers*.
[*]No true Scotsman wears pants under his kilt.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
The rail that provides electric power to the train is a good place to start. Problably can be used to send data, and though maybe not good enough you still can cut the power.
They haven't flown coach lately, have they.
Aircraft do look nice and airy on the inside - right up until you cram in extra rows of seats to make more money, then fill them up with people and luggage. Even in coach, I had some very comfortable long-haul flights in the months after 9/11 with an entire row of seats on a 777 to myself - of course, the airlines weren't quite as comfortable with the plane being that empty. (I'm told this is how Sean Connery flies: rather than pay for first class, just book a whole row in coach. Presumably the airline's perfectly happy with an empty seat, as long as it's being paid for.)
I hope these trains will run on a *nix/Linux system and not Windows. The security and reliability problems would be horrendous if they chose the Microsoft offering...