<< ... what are the safety measures in place if the sky-train comes to a halt in between two stations? In monsoons? Will the sky-train survive blasts of 75 kmph winds or more? ... questions that I had put to the Konkan Railway web-site a couple of years ago, as yet unanswered. >> Gabriel F
Believe the answers to Q8 & Q12 of the FAQ's, appended below, also answer your questions, Gabriel. Lawrence ----- See http://www.konkanrailway.com/website/skybusmetro/html/faq.html FAQ >> Frequently Asked Questions 8. How are the breakdowns handled? Sky Bus is exactly like a railway line- same standards of operation, except the "train", in our case is only 38m long! Redundancy in driving motors is provided-even if 50% motors fail, the Sky Bus units can haul themselves and clear at the traverser. If all fail, then fellow Sky Bus unit has extra power to push it and take it out at the traverser. 12. What are the safety measures in the system? Compared to conventional railway systems, the center of gravity of the mass being carried on the wheels is bought down to the closer to the wheel support- hence dynamic safety is many time improved In conventional railway wind can topple the trains and in Kerala once, an express train went into river by being toppled by wind!! In Sky Bus wind cannot topple- there is positive link between the rail guidance system and the Bus Coaches- with 400% safety factor built into multiple suspenders. The railway bogies in conventional system have propensity to lose control on derailment, but additional safety in Sky Bus bogie is that we have derailment arresters, which prevents the wheel from jumping off the rails. So we are ensuring that there is no derailment. In normal railway systems, when collision takes place, derailment also occurs, and carriages capsize killing people. But in Sky Bus no collision can take place between the coaches- even after the 3 levels of braking fail and the Sky Bus units hit each other in a collision, the Sky Coaches in which people are traveling, will only swing to and fro- but will not collide with each other nor capsize. B.Rajaram Managing Director Konkan Railway Copyright(c) Konkan Railway 2004 -- PS: If you wish to have a *Gmail* e-mail address, do write to me. Will send you an invitation to open a *Gmail* e-mail account. :-)