Continuous Convoys and En Route Sequencing

One of the great things about Long Branch, New Jersey is the train station with service to New York City. There is enough parking and only $3 per day!  A problem is that it takes 1 hour and 30 or 40 minutes to get to NYC on the train, while I can drive the 55 miles in about an hour and 10 minutes (longer with traffic J). And driving gets me where I want to go, not just Penn Station, of course I do have to finding a parking place, and pay for it; it’s not a pleasant drive, but when you include the extra time and effort of driving to the train station in Long Branch and then finding another mode of transport in NYC, the time difference is a major factor.   

So I have spent a lot of effort trying to figure out how to fix the train system. One problem is the 8-14 scheduled stops, depending on whether its an express or local (there are 18 potential stops between Long Branch and NYC, but no train makes them all). At each stop the train has to decelerate, load and unload passengers, and accelerate again – this adds about 30 minutes to the trip. 

What if you could get on at your station and then go non-stop to your destination: in effect every train is an express just for you – sounds impossible? Here are two of my ideas: Continuous Convoys with En Route Sequencing:

  1. You are standing at the Red (R) Station in the diagram, and you are going to the Green (G) Station. There is another passenger going to the Blue station.

  2.  A Convoy is approaching. The last Vehicle in the Convoy detaches from the Convoy and decelerates.  All the passengers are going to the Red Station.

  3.  The Vehicle stops right in front of you. The passengers destined for the Red Station exit. You enter the Vehicle along with the other passenger.

  4.  As the next Convoy approaches, the Vehicle you are in accelerates and joins at the front of this Convoy.

  5.  You then move to the Vehicle in the Convoy that will be stopping at your destination, along with the other passengers going to the Green Station. – this is En Route Sequencing.  The passenger going to the Blue Station moves to that Vehicle.

From your perspective you get on at your origin and are whisked directly to your destination without any intermediate stops.  I’m sure this triggers all sorts of observations and questions:  do you get there faster?  Is it easier?  Should you care? I’ll address these and other topics in this and future posts.

20-30 minutes, that’s how much time Continuous Convoys with En Route Sequencing saves you on your train trip. You could even get on and off at any of the 18 intermediate stations, which isn’t possible with existing schedules. And that’s over 10 minutes faster than the car trip. If the train could go faster, the Continuous Convoys with En Route Sequencing advantage grows even more.

What could be better? Actually I have a lot of ideas that will make it even better, and I’ll talk about those in coming posts. J