For almost a century now, the automobile has dominated the American transportation system. Its convenience and low costs shaped American life in ways that few technologies have. There are many movements urging alternative transportation means, citing environmental advantages first. However the alternatives so far have been grossly expensive and difficult to implement into existing development.

Of course there are minor variations on the classic train, but there have been some innovative approaches to elevated guideways. System 21 , SkyTran , and SkyTrolley all have shown their flair for creative elevated guideway ideas. However I recently ran across a concept that is so bizarre, I have to share it with you.

It is ironically called “ Tubular Rail ”, and it features high occupancy vehicles with no track, just stanchions! The idea puts motors in each of the stanchions which pass the long, rigid train car on through space to the next awaiting stanchion. The trick is that the train car is three stanchions long.

The concept seems pretty simple, though it left me with many questions, mainly on accomplishing turns. Here is the email exchange that I had with the company’s chairman, Robert Pulliam:

I just read through your website and want to congratulate you for thinking outside the box. We in Raleigh are moving toward a metropolitan public transit service, but every option considered is considerably more expensive than roads, and would simply be a matter of keeping up with the Joneses. I have a few questions, still:

Current light rail costs in North America are ranging from 100 million a mile (Houston, Minneapolis) to 250 million (Honolulu) Charlotte was able to use a lot of existing railroad right of way but there is only so much low hanging fruit. You are right about keeping up with the Jones and a lot of it is driven by Real Estate interests on the Consulting industry who drive technology choice.

1) I still don’t understand how a stiff, 3-stanchion long train car can manage curves. What I am imagining after reading the FAQ is the method for rolling the train in the Z axis. Are you saying that by rolling the train it can then turn???  If the train is kept stiff vertically by a vertical hinge, and can wobble L and R, then how would it correctly aim into the next stanchion’s opening?

First you have to define the radius of the curve. If you are talking about a 500 foot radius, then no TR will not make that turn.  However, when you elevate the line you reduce the need to make many of those turns. If you think about the topography of various cities as well as their street patterns, then Chicago, Toronto, Miami are the type of cities that are natural for us, San Francisco and Pittsburgh less so but not out of the picture.  We don’t advocate TR as the only solution, just an appropriate option where costs do matter. Life is after all a series of trade offs.

It sometimes helps to think of the car with an analogy. Think of a swimming pool diving board turned 90 degrees. It will then bend left and right yet be stiff in the vertical. Also we widen the rings in a turn. The World Trade Towers would have a sway of fifteen feet on the top floor.  In such a position the arc created by the side of the building is actually less than the allowable turning radius of a high speed train at 300 kph.  That is a turn we can make.

2) This concept is very similar to monorails. Their biggest drawback is the cost of all of the guideway, which is driven by the weight of the train. Since your train must be long, it also must be high-occupancy, so each stanchion must be substantial in support, and therefore costs. How is your system going to be cheaper than a monorail? Are the horizontal pieces of the monorail’s system THAT much more expensive than your powered, smart, stanchions?

Other than being elevated, we have nothing in common with monorails and prefer not be be associated with them. I will leave them to Marge Simpson in Springfield. However you are very astute in correctly identifying the relationship of weight and costs in monorail guideways. Add to it that an increase in span lenght increases the depth and width of the guideway due to structural considerations and you wind up with cost numbers like Las Vegas where the system cost 165 million dollars a mile. Seattle’s extension was to cost 11 billion for a 14 mile addition, most of it interest on a 75 year finance scheme for a system with a 50 year life span.

Guideway is only one of the cost considerations, the other big one is reworking the existing infrastructure.  Our spacing has a maximum span length but no minimum so that we are able to shorten the distance to avoid major  underground utilities and their relocation.. At any rate, with a span length of 100′ our costs numbers work out to less than 20 million a mile with cars around 10,000 dollars a seat or 5 million each.  A forty passenger bus can easily cost 250,000 dollars with a more limited life span and higher maintenance cost.

3) Each stanchion will have a motorized wheel assembly that must be lubricated. How would the system manage the flinging of lubricant around and onto the stanchions?

This sounds like a question from somebody that wears a white lab coat to work.  Modern seal bearings are developed to the point that lubrication is a none issue. The bearing in your car do not throw grease do they? That and individual bearings are only under load for minutes in a 24 hour period unlike regular trains where the axles are continuously moving with the trains mean that an individual failure of a seal is a remote possibility.

I am completely fascinated by your proposal as well as other alternatives to transit. I wish we could see some scale implementations of all of them so that cities (which think that people are addicted to cars) will quit being addicted to the same old high-occupancy transit paradigms that haven’t changed in over a century.

The United States lost interest in alternatives as the price of oil declined in the late 70′s.  Only Morgantown at the University of West Virginia remains.  We are making some progress on building a 2 mile demonstration pilot in West Texas. Of course that depends on funding, probably offshore, but we are making progress. I have a board member in Richmond Va. who might be able to make a presentation to your local government officials if you could stir up some interest with the city council.

Thank you for your interest
Robert Pulliam
Tubular Rail Inc.
Houston TX
713 834 7905