"Steve Naïve" wrote in message
...
Michael Bell wrote in
:

It seems to me that there is a great need for means to link
the dozens of pairs of stations in London and elsewhere where the
two stations are just too far apart to be considered "the same
place", and too far apart to walk conveniently between. The legacy of
the railway politics of the 19th century!

Taken on their own a lot of these stations *are* in good sites from the
local spatial point of view. Interchange with competitors did not figure
highly in plans of the time and I'm willing to wager journey
origin-destinations were far less diverse 100 years ago than they are in
todays car dominated cities, so a good fast way of linking such station
pairs could start to make more potential rail journeys competitive.

Do you have examples?

Many outside central London - look at a map!

South West London has good connectivity already with useful hubs like
Wimbledon, Richmond, and the Grand-daddy of interchange, Clapham Junction.
The rest of London is not so well provided for unfortunately.

What means of transport could link such pairs? It would be
nice to have a standard thing which could be widely used.

A bus?

A conventional bus can't be automated easily, mainly because it would have
to share it's route with other traffic, pedestrians cyclist etc, which
depending on congestion could result in variable journey times. A
segregated, automated system could work 'on demand', departing when required
like a taxi, and driver costs no longer become a key issue in how many
vehicles can be running at the same time. Automation also changes the
economics of optimum vehicle size.

.. . .

Cableways can go up and down steep gradients, that's their
function in ski resorts. Pairs of stations often have a large height
difference between them. Speed is adequate for such short distances.

Do we have lots of steep gradients in London?

A vehicle's *ability* to climb (perhaps quite short) steep gradients and
turn sharp corners can reduce guideway construction costs and disruption
compared to conventional railways for instance.

I recommend a visit to this excellent website covering a wide range of
Innovative Transportation Technology -

http://faculty.washington.edu/~jbs/itrans/


--
Mark Townend
http://www.maprail.com/