The Problem: The British railway network’s capacity is not used effectively.
The Solution: ‘Modular’ rolling stock to make trains more versatile.
I’ve recently returned from a holiday in Japan, which proved a fountain of new ideas, particularly with regard to transport; Japan’s railways and roads are impressive, efficient and effective.
One of the stand outs riding on Japan’s Railways was how frequent and how full the trains were, both during peak and off-peak hours.
In contrast, much of the British railway network runs largely empty during off-peak times.
This wastes an important transport corridor and means we have a mono-culture of rolling stock designed for an average between peak and off-peak travel, which delivers an inferior experience for both.
I therefore propose a shift to modular rolling stock – flat cars that have the capacity to hold two standard freight container-sized modules on each car, built into 4-car multiple units that can connect into larger 8- and 12-car or more units as needed.
New infrastructure would be built at key terminus and interchange stations to lift modules onto and off the flat-cars, based on the needs and desires of customers at the particular time of day.
For example, during peak travel, standing-only modules would be placed on the cars to maximise the numbers of people that can travel on the trains and the comfort of standing passengers, alongside more specialist modules for those who booked ahead and were willing to pay a premium for a specialism, such as a gym module, first class module, or sauna module.
During off-peak hours, trains would have limited passenger modules, sufficient to carry people in comfort but in higher density, and freight modules would be lifted onto cars to create mixed passenger and freight sets.
Passenger lines would in that way also work as freight lines, moving anything from Amazon packages to HGVs loaded onto flatcars and then off at their desired station to move onto their end location – speeding up longer road journeys and reducing congestion on roads.
Such modular trains would enable true competition in the rail network, with a multitude of companies able to build modules and buy a spot on the flat cars, opening up potential waves of creativity.
Some railway stations and key parts of the network would need a re-design so they had the infrastructure required to lift modules on and off the flat cars and enable freight to be moved onto platforms, but this is eminently do-able – Waterloo station, for example, used to have a road through it for postal vans to drive to the platform and load up the trains.
Such a design would be a much-better investment than HS2, since it would create a fundamentally more versatile rail network which was used at much higher capacity throughout the day and night.
That greater use would also bring down the cost of rail travel as the price of maintaining the network was shared among more customers and the network could be used 24/7.
Modular design is used in many different industries already, bringing down costs and improving quality; it’s time for the railways to do the same.
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