A world linked by rail network

China's ambitious plans to link all major cities in the world via a high speed rail network would not only make travel cheaper for the common man but also will aid in boosting commerce and trade between nations. Just imagine if one has to go to London from Delhi, the normal way is to fly and this would take about 24hrs and would cost around Rs 20000 for a one way trip. Now with this new high speed rail link in place the rate would drastically come down but of course the travel would take slightly longer. But the advantage being the traveller would get to see the scenic beauty all along and that too for a cheaper rate.

This ambitious plan if materializes would make the world a global village and would bring people from different regions together. There are a number of obstacles for this plan to succeed viz

1. Nations from different continents need to give their approval for this project and must make a thorough feasibility study.
2. How does one solve the problem of VISA? for example the traveller from Delhi to London would naturally pass through some major European cities like Paris, Berlin, Islamabad etc. Should he get the VISA for all these nations or only for the destination nation? If the VISA is only for the destination nation then what would happen if gets down in between?
3. How to prevent terrorists from taking undue advantage of this? Trains can be stopped, hijacked and rail networks sabotaged. How can countries prevent unlawful infiltration?
4. What about the stations? Would only the national capitals be linked or other major cities also in the international rail network line?
5. How would the maintenance of the rail network be done? Should an international body be formed or should individual nations maintain the network coming under their territory? If individual nations are going to maintain the infrastructure on their soil then the developing countries would come under pressure to maintain strict quality standards on par with developed nations. This would mean financial aid needs to be given for developing countries.

Linking nations between Europe and Asia is quite possible because these two continents are connected by land. What happens to nations in North America, South America and Oceana? There would be a need to build gigantic rail bridges over the mighty Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This would call for skillful engineering to put the infrastructure in place and which can withstand the vagaries of nature. Critics might object to this idea of linking continents via rail when air travel is available. They would deem this idea as irrational and a major disaster.

The good part of this ambitious project is the travel industry would get a major boom. If the national capitals are linked through this high speed rail network then the tourism in that country can be boosted by a 'hub & spoke model'. The capital of a particular nation would serve as the centre and tourists can travel to any other part of the nation by the available modes of transport within that country.

This project would seriously make the airline industry to rethink their business plans. A common middle class man would prefer spending less money and wouldn't mind spending a day more to reach his intended destination rather than shelling out more money for the same distance of travel. This of course doesn't hold true for the elite class of people for whom time is money.

The business plan behind this high speed rail network would be to make international travel cheaper for the each and every citizen in the world and also promote commerce between nations.

If all nations can pool in their resources and plan this project to the minutest detail, the high speed rail network would become a reality. For the time being China alone has come out boldly and has agreed to spend on the infrastructure in exchange for energy resources.

Automobile SUSPENSION of the future

We all have travelled around the world in various forms of transport viz cars,auto-rickshaws,cycle-rickshaws,trains,planes,buses etc. Humans have always sought for comfort, during their travel from one place to another. Various modes of transport have two dimensions which people take into account while they travel viz the comfort level and the cost factor. Unless there is a balance between the two the society would be divided into two segments: the affluent ones and the common ones. The affluent wouldn't mind spending on luxurious travel while the common man is cost conscious. So to provide comfortable travel and to make it available to the common man (aam aadmi) an optimum must be reached.

Automobile suspension systems constitute one of the items that affect comfort levels in a vehicle. The present suspension systems include leaf springs,bogey suspensions, spring type suspensions and air suspensions. While the former ones have been used for many years, the air suspension concept a recent one ( say about 10-15 years old). Air suspensions were invented so that the bumpiness on the roads would be absorbed in the air bellows and less vibrations would be transmitted up the vehicle to the passengers. Air suspensions have done quite a good job in improving the comfort level in automobiles though the concept of vibration less travel could not be met by them. Engineers have experimented with various combinations wrt suspension systems,developing hybrid suspensions (combination of two suspension systems) albeit with limited success to ensure 100% vibration free travel.

The concept of electromagnetic suspension holds a lot of promise to ensure 100% vibration free travel. The concept is very simple: A magnet has two pole ; the North pole and the South pole. Unlike poles attract each other while like poles repel each other. So if the North poles of two magnets were brought close to each other they would repel each other and same would be the case with South poles. The electromagnetic suspension uses this concept. There are two ways of doing this:

Option1: We could use plain magnets with like poles facing each other one above the other. In this case during a bump or a pothole the magnets would tend to squeeze in but like poles would repel,absorbing the shock of the vibration. This design has a couple of drawbacks although a good theoretical concept. First the size of the magnets has to be extremely large because we are talking of an automobile and the forces transmitted up the vehicle would be thousands of Newtons. Secondly if the like poles are not strong enough to repel force which tend to squeeze the magnets together then the whole concept of vibration free travel goes for a toss.

Option2: We could use electromagnets which come into action when electricity is passed through them. These magnets can be made to come into action whenever required or can be made active permanently (which need current to be passes through it at all times). Electromagnets tend to be more superior than permanent magnets because permanent magnets could lose their magnetism after a certain period of time. The magnetic flux could also be controlled by regulating the amount of current passing through the electromagnet. Thus the problem of the like poles of two magnets squeezing each other during a major bump could be avoided. But electromagnets also have their own drawbacks: first we would need a superior battery system to cater to the needs of the electromagnet,giving good performance without draining out quickly,secondly they tend to be more costly than permanent magnets.

We could improve on the electromagnetic suspension system by providing an electronic control unit which constantly monitors the road conditions,giving signals to the suspension magnets and controlling the amount of flux generated between them. The vehicle speed also needs to be regulated when the automobile encounters a bump or a pothole because the speed with which the vehicle hits the obstacle determines the amount of upward thrust on the vehicle suspension system.The suspension system is the key to passenger comfort and also a necessary element in the control mechanics of the vehicle. Electromagnetic suspensions are not used on a mass scale in automobiles because quite a lot of research needs to be done to make it commercially viable and effective rather than keeping it as a theoretical concept but they hold a bright future in ensuring 100% vibration free travel, giving passengers the feel of floating in the air.