China, a train that never stops

So passengers will get on the fly

Trains that never stop, with passengers getting on and off “on the fly”, thanks to a module that loads the departures at the station, runs over the train that picks them up while running, while another module does the same with the travelers to “disembark “. The idea comes from China, and for now it is only a fascinating project. A train that stops at 30 stations, with an average stop of 5 minutes, loses two and a half hours of travel time. But diluting the stop cannot, too great, the risk of causing enormous inconvenience to passengers. This must have been thought by the engineers at work on the Beijing-Guangzhou line (about 2000 kilometers of railway), who are thinking of completely eliminating the stops. Don’t worry, you are not thrown to the ground by the running train, the system is much more sophisticated.

Get on board. Passengers departing board a stationary module. When the train passes, it slows down just enough to allow this car to hook onto the roof of the train itself. At this point the passengers get off the module and enter the train, which has never stopped its run. Then the wagon -connector “slides” towards the end of the train, where it is ready to embark who will have to get off at the next station.

Get off the train. Before arriving at the destination station, travelers are taken up on the mobile module, above the last tail car. Arriving at the destination, this is released, and passengers can descend calmly. Meanwhile, the train is ready to hook up a new module loaded with departing travelers, as shown in the video. At the moment it is a project that, if it becomes a reality, can revolutionize rail transport, reducing travel times and delays.

(April 29, 2010)

Grenades in the heart of Bangkok
Three dead and seventy injured

BANGKOK – Attack today Bangkok. Five grenades were thrown into the financial district of the Thai capital: three people died and seventy were injured, two of which were foreigners. Four in all are in serious condition. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that there are no Italians involved.

The grenades were thrown from an M-79, the same type of weapon used against soldiers in the red-shirt anti-government demonstration, which caused 25 deaths on 10 April. A grenade exploded near the headquarters of the Charoen Pokphand Group, the largest farm in the country, located next to the Dusit Thani Hotel. In the same area of ​​the Thai capital there are about 500 pro-government protesters and not far away are the tens of thousands of red shirts that support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, to whom the army had ordered to leave this morning.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiv urgently convened the Cabinet Council, to make a point about the state of security in the country. The government reiterated that it was from the area controlled by the red shirts that the attacks arrived.

(April 22, 2010)