RailCab is a research project by the

University of Paderborn Paderborn University (german: Universität Paderborn) is one of the fourteen public research universities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It was founded in 1972 and 20,308 students were enrolled at the university in the winter ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Its purpose is the examination of the use of linear engines for the propulsion of autonomous, rail mounted vehicles. Similar to the

Transrapid Transrapid is a German-developed high-speed monorail train using magnetic levitation. Planning for the Transrapid system started in 1969 with a test facility for the system in Emsland, Germany completed in 1987. In 1991, technical readi ...

the coaches are moved by

linear motor A linear motor is an electric motor that has had its stator and rotor "unrolled", thus, instead of producing a torque (rotation), it produces a linear force along its length. However, linear motors are not necessarily straight. Characteristicall ...

s, which have a very low need for maintenance. In contrast to Transrapid a magnetic field is only used for acceleration, the vehicles run on wheels on tracks. This concept allows for modification of existing conventional railway tracks.

Overview

The cabs can be ordered via

cell-phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

or the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, and will be configured accordingly to the demands of the customer. In comparison to usual trains these vehicles are means of individual transport. Neither big stations, timetables nor prescribed routes are needed. An important feature is the creation of convoys of several cars with up to 10 passengers on the most frequently used tracks. The cars are not connected, but drive with low distance from each other. This reduces drag and so saves energy. Electronic systems and computers ensure that the cars maintain a certain distance from each other, and organize a fluent transport.

Experimental track

An experimental track exists near

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...

, which allows the evaluation of the system.

References

External links

RailCab website in English
{{coord, 51, 42, 19, N, 8, 46, 04, E, display=title, region:DE-NW_type:landmark_source:dewiki Rail technologies