SHORT HEADWAY SWITCHING SYSTEM

摘要

In a personalized rapid transit system employing wayside switching, safety considerations require so much separation between successive vehicles that passenger handling capacity is too low. In an onboard switching system, safety considerations require so much separation between successive diverge points that excessive space is required at a major junction. A new switching concept is presented which employs a plurality of types of diverge points and/or a plurality of types of vehicles and which allows shorter headway between vehicles with no reduction in safety. A system having a plurality of types of diverge points and a vehicle having a plurality of onboard devices, individual ones of which may be selectively set to cooperate with any selected type of diverge point, is disclosed. This system permits the setting of the onboard devices and the passage of the vehicle through the plurality of diverge points without the need to adjust the onboard devices subsequent to the entry of the vehicle into the first diverge point and prior to the exit of the vehicle from the last diverge point. Another system is disclosed employing a single type of diverge point which cooperates in different manners with vehicles of different types.