Parry People Movers

[Fledermaus]

Parry People Movers Ltd (PPML) supplies lightweight tramway systems for smaller towns, and lightweight rail vehicles for use on regional railways.

PPM vehicles incorporate flywheel energy storage, allowing electric tramway systems without overhead wires and railcars powered by small prime movers running on gas, diesel or hydrogen - all with very high energy efficiency and very low emissions of pollutants and noise.

PPM technology responds to the need for high quality, environmentally sound, affordable local public transport for both urban and rural communities.

http://www.parrypeoplemovers.com/video-for-broadband-13.htm

[txlibdem]

1. Anything that will increase public transportation

If the cost is reasonable then I'm all for it.

[happyslug]

2. 80% of the cost of Mass Transit is pay to drivers NOT operation of vehicles

and that is true even if all you pay the driver is Minimum Wage. The larger the Vehicles more fare payer per operator, smaller cars, more frequent service, higher cost PER FARE when you figure in the operator's wages.

Has some good point, but lets remember the larger the car the more passengers per driver and he is the chief operating cost NOT the electricity or diesel used to propel the Vehicle. Unless we see gasoline $10 a gallon the larger car coming less frequently is more cost effective.

Please note, I can see WHY someone would push this idea but lets remember HOW and WHY the streetcars Companies went out of business. The Chief reason streetcars died out is that they ended up in a death spiral. To decrease costs the streetcars ran the biggest cars possible. As people slowly adopted the Automobile, to decrease costs the streetcars Companies ran less and less Vehicles per hour so each Vehicles would be operated as full as possible. The problem was the less streetcars being operated meant the streetcars became less convenient for more people. As the Streetcar became less and less convenient more and more people opt to go by Automobile. The more the Streetcar Companies cut back on streetcar runs (To maximize riders per run to maximize revenue or in the streetcars last days to minimize the losses), the less convenient the Streetcars became and the more and more people opted to take their automobiles instead. This went on for years, the less and less streetcar runs, the less convenient Streetcars became and the less people took the Streetcar which lead to less and less Streetcar runs. The key was to the need to minimize the cost per passenger of the cost to operate the Streetcars (and in later years buses( but with 80& of costs being labor, the best way to minimize the cost is the most riders per Streetcar (or bus) and you get that when one operate the biggest Streetcars (or Buses) as full as possible.

Thus I can see the reason for this size car, More frequent service the more Convenient is the service, but the higher the cost per passenger. Right now everyone wants to run the least runs of any Public Transportation Vehicle with the most passengers. Ideally large cars filled have the most revenue per passenger carried. Such small vehicles can NOT minimize costs per passenger WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE WAGES OF THE OPERATOR. It is useless to just look at energy use, you have to consider labor.

[happyslug]

3. Illegal to Operate on US Fright Rail Lines

Do to a series of bad accidents on the railroads around 1900, Congress about 1918 passed a law that any passenger car operated with Fright trains MUST be of all steel constructions able to withstand being hit by a steam locomotive.

I first ran across this rule when Amtrak wanted to use European High Speed Trains in the North East Corridor. Amtrak received money from Congress for such a purchase, but did NOT dare ask Congress to Change the underlying law. The biggest problem is European High Speed Trains do NOT have the same restrictions, instead they rely on improved signals to prevent such accidents instead of the US option to demand all passenger cars can withstand such an accident. Thus Amtrak could NOT buy what Europe operated, for it did NOT meet US statutory requirements. Thus the Acela is a compromise, it uses European Technology BUT with the addition of steel superstructure (not required in Europe and thus NOT on European Trains). This took Amtrak years to work out the bugs but it is working in the Northeast Corridor.

Another place where it comes up is the New Jersey Train system. The New Jersey Passenger transit system operates light weight cars that do NOT meet US requirements. This is done under a special exemption issued by the Department of Transportation that only applies when no Fright trains are operated at the same time on the same tracks (The fright train operates at night on the same lines).

Thus to operate these vehicles on US Fright Lines can only be on lines that uses the lines only at night (or can be operated at night). Now, most fright lines in my area operate 24 hours a day, thus can NOT stop service during the day so a New Jersey Transit exception is NOT possible. Congress may change the law, but if Amtrak could NOT get that done for Acela, how can this maker expect to get it done?

A good idea, but the problems facing it are huge, may work out but implementation of operating this system in the US faces a huge number of problems and I am mentioned just some of them.