• antimidas@sopuli.xyz
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    8 days ago

    Germans had a working solution to this for decades, but apparently gave up on it for some reason (not competitive with road traffic is probably the correct one)

    It was called a railbus and they were once quite prevalent on European branch lines. Finland had and Sweden loads as well, in rural areas, until someone decided that a normal bus is better for some reason.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      8 days ago

      the problem is that you still need a driver, so frequency is going to be limited, which makes the service barely usable. Lack of places for vehicles to pass also limits possible frequency on these rural lines.

      the idea behind monocab is that you can just throw more vehicles at the problem, so people can either just order a cab or you can have them constantly circulating like a very strange merry-go-round.

      Railbuses are still good, but they made a lot more sense in the past. These days people have very very little tolerance for waiting.