| 摘要 |
The present disclosure relates to a transitional mode high speed rail system. The high speed rail infrastructure employed by the system is constructed adjacent a conventional host highway. The infrastructure can be provided adjacent to acceleration/deceleration lanes, or emergency parking/paved shoulder lanes. The vehicles used by the system are individual, self-powered, self-operating, individual mass passenger transport vehicles similar in size and appearance to municipal buses. These are transitional mode vehicles because they operate as railroad vehicles on the high speed rail infrastructure, but transition to automotive vehicle mode traveling on ordinary paved roads. They are mass passenger transport vehicles because many passengers can be accommodated. |
| 主权项 |
1. A multimodal high speed transportation system comprising:
a railway comprising a frame that includes two opposing edges, empty space for the placement of electronics, sensors, support beams, and support features, and a central extent, each opposing edge including a planar contact surface and a rail positioned above the planar contact surface; a highway extending alongside the railway, the highway including a conventional road surface, the highway and the railway being interconnected at designated locations; a mass passenger transport vehicle (MPT) including a set of bimodal wheels, with each bimodal wheel including a metallic flange and a resilient tire, the rim and tire each having an axis of rotation that is substantially horizontal, the MPT adapted to travel between the railway or the highway, wherein when the MPT travels along the highway, the resilient tires contact the conventional road surface, and when the MPT travels along the railway, the metallic rims contact the rails. |
