Passenger Train Ideas
I love traveling by train. It’s a very laid-back experience, and you can take in great views, something seldom afforded by planes and auto travel (especially if you’re the one driving). But I’d like to see a few things to enhance the experience:
1. Smartphone/Tablet perch (above). This would be a smaller version of the food tray, but for smartphones and tablets. The food tray is ideal for Laptops, but for smaller devices it is overkill. A small perch to hold smartphones and tablets would be awesome - frees up your hands and would turn your smart device into a first-class luxury. An audio jack would be needed to relay the audio to the jack port on your seat, so you are not awkwardly tethered to your smartphone. This perch could fold out from the food tray or another section of the seat back. This could be applied to airplanes and buses as well.
2. Geeky theme trains. There are some trains that offer a touristy experience, like the Orient Express or the local Mountaineer. Those are nice and all, but I think you can attract a geeky clientele if you decked out a train in a cool theme. The Jules Verne train from Back to the Future III, Blaine the monorail from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and the carnival train from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade are all good examples. These theme trains would carry a lot of appeal with travelers.
3. Vending machines. The poor individual manning the bistro/snack bar is usually working alone, and often dealing with long lines. A lot of people get drinks or small items often found in a vending machine. You could probably situate a few of these in the vestibule areas of the train.
4. Drive-Thru service. This idea is a bit out there, but it would be cool if there was a kitchen stop situated on the rail line, and orders could be placed in advance so the food is all ready upon the train’s arrival. Having a full kitchen to prepare meals is so much better than microwave dinners. I think it would be even cooler if this stop was made up of platforms on both sides of the train, and everyone was served through the window (which would be opened from the outside). This type of gourmet service would likely command a premium price. Again a bit out there, but if there was one means of travel that could pull it off it is the train.
5. Curtains that drop from the baggage overhead/ceiling. Some people need their light on while everyone else is trying to sleep. Would be nice of these curtain partitions were available. Another idea that could be applied to airplanes or buses.
6. Lights on the seat backs. If curtains can’t be done, then some way of relocating the lights to a lower position that would allow you to read (or whatever you are doing that warrants a light) so you are not bothering anyone else.
Gripes: Need power relays for the fridges. I frequent the Amtrak Cascades train, and was disappointed to learn that the train is in full idle between trips (about 6 and 8 hours between departures) because they need to keep the train running for the fridges! Need some sort of way to shut off the train and tap into a local power source. It is obscene to see these engines going at full bore for hours on end.
The video and sound systems on many passenger trains (and planes/buses) are in serious need of an upgrade. Don’t know if I can take another cloudy-looking film with muffled audio.
Posted on September 5, 2011, in Transportation and tagged Transportation. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
Nice ideas, but the only one I’d really ask for on the trains I ride is more publically accessible power points, for charging up phones, laptops etc. Maybe some that are 5V USB so I can still get juice if I’ve forgotten the AC adaptor but have the cable. Everything else isn’t so bad.
Also, if you’re somewhere that hasn’t been electrified and so uses diesel power, having them idling isn’t actually so bad. A diesel engine at low load is FAR less thirsty (no throttle, power output and speed is entirely dependent on fuel input vs load) and polluting (assuming a particulate capture system anyway; they’re lean-burn and often 2-stroke supercharged so run pretty efficiently) than an automotive gasoline engine. It’s a bit like the difference between operating electrical devices at full power vs standby, but the locomotive is a sub-1-watt certified model and the car is a regular wasteful 10w+ type. If the local power plant happens to be coal or oil fuelled, it may not be all so much less efficient per generated watt after power line losses are taken into account. (Said effect, on a much lower rung of the economy-of-scale ladder, is why most european and asian (but non-japanese) eco cars are well-engineered small diesels rather than hybrids; as it’s idling most of the time around the city, you can get almost the same mileage in that setting as on a low-to-medium speed highway cruise. Ditto why most generators use it here, too… though oddly, bikes are going electric. Can’t quite get my head around that one… if there’s something bikes need more of, it’s torque and range, and if they have enough of anything, it’s top-end power and lightness…)
Think that as well as the fridges, they need power and heat for the lights, AC and/or space heating, and a multitude of other things, few of which get turned off. The onboard equipment will be tuned to whatever voltage and frequency the engine generators put out also, so they might not be able to run on 110 / 230 / 415v or whatever’s locally available at the station. And if you’re going to run a high voltage line out to each main station and convert the fridges to work on that and the generator supply, why not just go the whole hog - do it “right” - and electrify the entire line?