Crowded platforms, delays, schedule changes… To put an end to the daily inconveniences faced by the 4.1 million Parisians who take the metro, Augustin Ory, a Master of Science student at Arts et Métiers, and Grégoire Galichon, Assistant Construction Engineer - Tours DUO at BATEG - VINCI Construction France, have devised a revolutionary transportation solution: a train that never stops. The INFINITRAIN aims to save its users 50% of their daily commute time. How? By rethinking transportation on a “one-by-one” rather than mass transit.
Specifically, fifth-year students at HEI Lille and Arts et Métiers have designed a metro system that is no longer linear, but circular and never stops. The different lines become platforms that rotate endlessly around rings. Connected to each other, they form a completely new mobile network: the INFINITRAIN. The advantage for users? With the metro running endlessly, there is no longer any need to stop at each station or plan your trips according to timetables! Placed back at the center of the transport offering, users can optimize their time and their journeys. In terms of energy, the gains are also considerable: driven by the vortex effect, the trains require virtually no energy to move forward. But this raises a question: how do you get on and off a train that never stops? This is the technological challenge taken up by the two engineers. Grégoire and Augustin have devised a series of four moving walkways, each with a progressively faster speed: 5 km/h (walking speed), then 10, 15 and finally 20, to reach the train's final speed. This provides an effective and environmentally friendly response to the modern problems of overpopulation and transport congestion.
