Continuous Convoys for NYC Subways

The New York Times reported yesterday that unlike other global economic hubs, there is no express rail link from midtown to New York City airports. The fastest way from midtown is the 4/5/6 subway to the E train (9-19 stops) to the AirTrain and it takes about an hour. Unfortunately, the 4/5/6 is running at 116% capacity. You could run more trains but there are delays in loading because people squeeze in and block the doors.

This would be an ideal application for Continuous Convoys with En Route Sequencing: eliminating 9-19 stops should save at least 30 minutes.

The way NYC subways operate raises two obvious questions:

1.  Subways are controlled by engineers using signal lights. A simple solution is to have the car(s) loaded at the station waiting for the next train/convoy to stop momentarily, connect, and then accelerate, dropping off the back car(s). The engineer could use video from the new front car -- enhanced video is even better than human vision. Although the train has to essentially stop, there is no wait for loading and unloading, because the doors would already be closed as the train/convoy approached. Note if the train doesn’t have to stop, the trip is even faster.

2.  Subway cars are jammed, especially at rush-hour, so you couldn’t move from one car to another for En Route Sequencing:  more frequent trains would reduce crowding so people could move more easily. People could even sequence within the stopped cars to speed the process.

Other advantages include:

-  The trains can be longer than the station, because you are only loading and unloading from a fraction of the cars.

-  We can use more of the stops to improve the service even more, because many are night or only part-time.