Michael Bell wrote:
In article , Paul Weaver:
"Michael Bell" wrote...

The never-stop railway consists of cabins for 6-8 passengers
which are moved along the track by a continuous spiral laid between
the tracks. The pitch of the spiral is fine at stations, so at the
stations the gaps between the cabins close up and the cabins move
slowly and the passengers can get in and out. As the cabins reach the
end of the station the doors close and when they leave the station the
pitch of the spiral coarsens so the gap between the cabins widens and
they pick up speed. The cabins can be slowed down to go round sharp
corners. The front and back wheels of the cabins run on different
rails so the cabins can go up and down steep slopes without tilting
them, in the way that steps on an escalator do. To be able to go round
sharp corners and go up and down steep slopes are important advantages
in fitting such a system into a town. The system was successfully
demonstrated at an exhibition in Wembley in the 1920s.

Similar to ski lifts then?

Yes.

(snip)
If you are talking about never-stops, then their front axles and back axles
are different gauges, with wheels running on different tracks, so that they
can run up and down steep gradients with the floor staying level, just as
escalator steps stay level on slopes.

And just where in London would you put them?

Don't you think the ability to stop is important? Remember, the
escalators all have emergency stop buttons.

How do you expect passengers to board and alight safely with crowded
platforms?

If you want sharp corners and steep slopes, get a monorail instead! Or
maybe you should consider an atmospheric railway - AIUI that system
(originally invented by Brunel, but not practical until the late 20th
century when more reliable material were available) is far cheaper than
linear induction motors.

If you are talking about airport Travelators, then yes, exactly like them,
except that none I have seen are CASCADED, the key feature of my proposal,
There is plenty of space to cascade them, but airport authorities WANT to
slow down and spread out the flow of passengers (they have different walking
speeds) to make it easier to cope peaks of flow, and also to give the
passengers lots of waiting time which they could use for shopping.

How would cascaded travelators give the passengers less time for
shopping? Would they have to spend it in hospital instead??

never-stop. We can all walk at 4 mph (= 1M/sec), so I think 4 mph steps
would be acceptable, so 3 belts would get us up to 12 mph and 4 belts
would get us up to 16 mph. This is much faster than town buses and
after allowing for the time taken walking to the station and waiting
for the train, competitive with Metros.

No. You and I can. Old people and wheelchairs cant. Besides, would you like
to ride on a skateboard at 16mph?

This is a misunderstanding. If you are on a 16 mph belt, the neighbouring
belt is at 12 mph.

So what would you do when you reached the end?

The experience of the old belts was that old people COULD.

Probably because the old people who couldn't didn't attempt to use them.

And what you're proposing is very different from slow travelators with
handrails!

Let's think about wheel chairs. Let's assume the belt is running from left to
right, and you are approaching it about 20°. Your right wheel runs onto it,
and it stops turning, if the belt was going faster than you, it would turn
backwards. No harm done. You give your left wheel an extra heave and continue
your roll onto the belt. Where's the problem? A test would be cheap enough.

The problem is the space between the belts. Have you ever wondered why
escalators have those brushes at the edges? It's to keep people away
from the narrow gap between the escalator and the wall, which is
surprisingly dangerous. Children whose footwear got caught in the gap
have very painfully lost feet! Now escalators and travelators are
designed to prevent such accidents, but if people had to cross the gap,
it would be much harder to keep them away from it.

Raising our eyes from the technical details, we see that the
reasons why such project might or might not go ahead are political and
economic. Belts would create a wholly new townscape.

Never happen, discriminatory against a whole range of people

As discussed above, nobody is discriminated against.

That depends what you mean by "discriminated against". A whole range of
people would not be able to use it. But the main reason it will never
happen is that they're inherently unsafe.

A 153-metre long "moving walkway" is planned for the new Mersey Square
interhcange in Stockport. I have been unable to find out whether it involves
CASCADING the belts, the key feature of my proposal.

Though I have not seen the proposals, I already know it doesn't!