What if you could run more trains on a railway by coupling different trains while they are running? That is the aim of Israeli startup DirecTrainSystems (DTS), building on know-how of refuelling airplanes mid-air. This also sounds difficult, but has been in practice for many decades. The company will give a workshop on RailTech Europe on 21 June about the concept of coupling trains.
The idea in itself is quite simple: by physically connecting running trains, more trains can run on the same track. Once coupled, the usual minimal distance for braking no longer applies. “The number of passenger train services on a line can be increased, as will the capacity for freight”, says DTS CEO Alberto Mandler. In an analysis carried out with Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, an increase of capacity of up to 40 percent could be achieved based on simulations. This would require changes to just 1 percent of the existing rail infrastructure.
Platooning intercity and commuter trains
Ishay Erel, business development manager of DTS explains: “Imagine point A in the suburbs of a city. A direct train from the suburbs (A) to the city center (C) does not stop at any stations in between. Due to capacity constraints, an additional train from intermediate station B to the city centre is not always possible. With dynamic coupling technology, a train leaving station B could physically connect to the direct intercity on the way, and together run into the city centre. This connected train, or platoon, requires less space on the tracks.”
Mandler and CTO Moti Topf are both engineers, and have a background in aerospace design. This expertise, they say, can also be translated to the rail sector. Moti Topf: “Refuelling in the air is arguably even more difficult than coupling moving trains, yet coupling trains has not yet been developed.”
