Railway technology and the future

[GodAtum]

I wonder what the railway will look like in a few 100 years time? Will it still face the same problems as it does today? Perhaps the tracks will become maglev and the trains more energy efficient?

 

[Blindtraveler]

I wonder what the railway will look like in a few 100 years time? Will it still face the same problems as it does today? Perhaps the tracks will become maglev and the trains more energy efficient?

At a guess Id say all lines other than very remote ones will be electrified, the Signaling will be 2nd or 3rd Generation ERTMS, 3rd rail and voyagers will be history, IEPS will be running railtours and youl be able to go to a herritage railway or the NRM for a ride on a preserved Bus Seat 142 ↲ ↲

 

[TrainBoy98]

Steam would be back! After a shortage of oil, due to a war, the SSR come out to run services along side a small fleet of SDR 47s for non-stop, long-distance, heavy-loaded services.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Can't ever see a widespread adoption of maglev, it's hideously expensive to maintain isn't it?

 

[Eagle]

Can't ever see a widespread adoption of maglev, it's hideously expensive to maintain isn't it?

Yes, especially junctions, which can be very complicated. (Remember that a maglev is a kind of monorail.)

 

[Holly]

Within 100 years a lot of lines will definitely be lost to raising sea levels. Some will remain.
I would expect rolling roads carrying electric cars and lorries.
.

 

[Eagle]

Um, that appears to be a map where sea levels have risen by 85 metres. I don't think even the most apocalyptic climate change models predict anything remotely that drastic for the next 100 years.

 

[TheEdge]

Even if every single ice cube in the Arctic and Antarctic melted the sea would 'only' rise 67m.

According to National Geographic the most apocalyptic estimate for 2100 is 7m.

 

[Eagle]

Even if every single ice cube in the Arctic and Antarctic melted the sea would 'only' rise 67m.

We'll actually almost all of the sea level rise is due to thermal expansion of seawater. (but still it'll be at least an order of magnitude smaller than 85 metres a century.)

 

[Trog]

How about recycled plastic sleepers to replace timber, I beleive the Americans are experimenting with that idea. The big questions would be what colour do we want and should the top surface have a wood grain pattern.

 

[dysonsphere]

How about recycled plastic sleepers to replace timber, I beleive the Americans are experimenting with that idea. The big questions would be what colour do we want and should the top surface have a wood grain pattern.

LOL of course it has to be wood grain.

 

[Gwenllian2001]

How about recycled plastic sleepers to replace timber, I beleive the Americans are experimenting with that idea. The big questions would be what colour do we want and should the top surface have a wood grain pattern.

I don't know about the USA but .....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...ce-wooden-sleepers-with-recycled-plastic.html

 

[DD]

One summer later!

Rail services come to a halt as plastic sleepers melt in the scorching summer!

 

[Tiny Tim]

Predicting the future is a very risky pastime, who could have predicted the scale of the present rise in passenger demand even 20 years ago? Until fairly recently the whole network was seen as a declining industry. Considering the difficulty of looking ahead just two decades, seeing what a century does is more or less impossible.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Nobody is asking you to put any money down Tim! Surely the spirit of the thread is just to have a bunch of people shooting the breeze about where they think the industry is headed and gauging how realistic other people think their ideas are?

 

[Manchester77]

To be honest I don't think it'll be that different. In the 70s weren't there articles saying how we'd have robots in the house doing all chores? I'd imagine that as said the majority of lines will be signalled with ERTMS, I'd think that LU was mostly if not all driverless, most cities would have some kind of tram train system going on? I also think that we'll have either lost the railway along the Dawlish sea wall or it has been sited in land

 

[anthony263]

I can see a few lines being converted to tram-train operation perhaps as a way to improve the service levels with greater frequencies.

More of the network will be electrified including the north wales coast line. I wouldnt be too surprised in a underground link was built through Manchester which would be served by some new Metrolink routes.

Ow yes and the Swansea and Mumbles line will be re-opened as part of a light rail system around Swansea again using tram-train technology (This is something that does look like it could happen according to the local and regional press in south wales)

 

[tbtc]

The population may be 70/80/90 million in a hundred years time, which will make a big difference to demand.

All 3+2 seating to be abolished due to rising obesity levels (maybe we'll be too fat for 2+2 seats by 2113?).

Platform/door interface like the LU Jubilee Line to be "the norm", certainly at busy stations.

Crossrail Nine to be given planning permission by late 2112.

railforums to be full of threads along the lines of "can't we bring back heritage liveries like the original IEP colour scheme?

 

[anthony263]

Maybe we will have space elevators and people living on the moon etc (well something has to be done with the planets population)

 

[Blindtraveler]

or more amusingly, why cant the new WCML Trains have nice large windows like the old 390s did?

 

[chuckles1066]

I wonder what the railway will look like in a few 100 years time? Will it still face the same problems as it does today? Perhaps the tracks will become maglev and the trains more energy efficient?

There will be no rail network, there will be no need. There won't be cars, for that matter, either.

In 100 years time I can guarantee technology will have advanced and brought down the cost of owning some sort of personal flying device so that it's within the grasp of Joe Public.

So instead of getting a train from Bristol to London, you'll jump into your device and zip yourself to London in half an hour or so.

Might sound like a pipedream but look at transport in 1913 and how far we've come in the last 100 years.

 

[Bob Ames]

All trains use hydrogen fuel-cells as their primary power source. Network Rail regrets their gold-plating antics as they then have to take down the obsolete OHLE knitting.

 

[Windcutter]

Steam would be back! After a shortage of oil, due to a war, the SSR come out to run services along side a small fleet of SDR 47s for non-stop, long-distance, heavy-loaded services.

Yes steam will be back because of the war, Oil, bio, nuclear no longer available so no electricity other than for lighting parliament , government will nationalize all steam locos from heritage railways, coal will be mined again, no diesel left as all of them were melted down for the war effort, so the railways will be back like the go old days------Just great

 

[TrainBoy98]

Yes steam will be back because of the war, Oil, bio, nuclear no longer available so no electricity other than for lighting parliament , government will nationalize all steam locos from heritage railways, coal will be mined again, no diesel left as all of them were melted down for the war effort, so the railways will be back like the go old days------Just great

Would be nice, Id get to see the rebirth of steam!

 

[Tiny Tim]

Nobody is asking you to put any money down Tim! Surely the spirit of the thread is just to have a bunch of people shooting the breeze about where they think the industry is headed and gauging how realistic other people think their ideas are?

Fair comment. I've posted a fair amount of twaddle myself.

 

[Muzer]

It's always interesting, trying to predict the future.

Think back to the rail system in 1913, and what has changed. In some ways, not much - but in other ways, quite a lot. I don't think there will be any drastic changes, but mostly incremental ones - a few bits of new technology deployed throughout the network that make things better in some way, and odds and ends here and there.

It's hard to say whether there will be more or fewer lines/passengers/trains/etc. - my money would be on more focus on the commuter/intercity lines. It only takes one government to decide that the local lines are a waste of money and close the lot.

 

[pinguini]

Not a lot will change except the price of tickets will continue to rise above inflation year upon year to the point that most commuters can not afford their ticket

 

[northern156]

Not a lot will change except the price of tickets will continue to rise above inflation year upon year to the point that most commuters can not afford their ticket

Has that not already happened?

 

[Eng274]

Railway traction technology may be much more advanced than what we have now, but the maintenance skill/spare parts will be so horrifically expensive (the same bits you buy in B & Q for 50p costs many pounds for the railway, I know it's authorised suppliers and all that but it's still a cash cow/cartel for certain suppliers IMO) that a technical recession to simpler technology may happen. Or the ticket prices will be jacked up to compensate. Or the drivers take a pay freeze for 3 months.

Class 142s will still be working the Morecambe branch line.

 

[cuccir]

The government will be promising to retire the last pacers by 2120!
--
Edit, ah beaten to it somewhat with the joke above!

In all seriousness: ticketing is likely to be almost entirely electronic, either through dedicated smartcards or through some sort of all-purpose credit/debit card device which stores purchases on it. This may also be done via what we currently label 'cloud' software/infrastructure.

A larger population will see new lines emerge, most probably outside of the south-east: at some point, the expansion of UK population in south-east in comparison to the rest of the country will become economically untenable. I'd expect to see cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow (if still in UK!), Leeds, Nottingham and Bristol likely to see most network expansion.

Some sort of high-speed network, probably consisting of: HS1, the 'Y' HS2, an HS2 Scotland extension, a High-Speed West country route and possibly a High-Speed East Midlands route. Depending on population dynamics, these may be connected up between Birmingham-Bristol and East Midlands-Leeds, but London links will be the priority.