Vehicle: Train: Obstacle
Bullet Train Hurdles   (+2, -1)  [vote for, against]
make a running track on a bullet train

Most of the Japanese Shinkansen trains travel at around 200mph. It's a brilliant network and a total pleasure to use, with only the French TGV coming close in terms of speed but not in frequency or timekeeping. I have no experience of the Chinese system but understand it's comparable but on a much more massive scale.

The Japanese are innovators so will welcome the idea of an improvement to their already excellent trains. These trains are very long, so that improvement takes advantage of the continuous corridor that travels their entire length by equipping some Shinkansens with a running and hurdle track.

Travellers will therefore be able to spend at least some of their journeys running the length of the train as they negotiate the hurdles. This means that at certain times they will actually be travelling at a combined speed of 215mph.

Certificates and T shirts will show the slogan
"I ran from Tokyo to Kyoto at 215mph"

Swimming length train also under development.
-- xenzag, Apr 24 2022

https://en.m.wikipe...org/wiki/Shinkansen [xenzag, Apr 24 2022]

Shinkansen Go! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm6TLNitR0M
[xenzag, Apr 25 2022]

Bullet train go! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oL-AOAOSTFw
[xenzag, Apr 25 2022]

[+/-]
-- Voice, Apr 24 2022


Running track on roof and hurdles on lineside gantries
-- pocmloc, Apr 24 2022


+ I like this because I can stop and sit down if I get tired of running.
-- xandram, Apr 24 2022


Is it a continuous corridor though? Being a train, surely it's still segmented into individual cars with open air pivot points between them right?
-- 21 Quest, Apr 24 2022


That's 1940s technology. All modern trains have

continuous, seamlessly connected airtight carriages. [see details in

link]
-- xenzag, Apr 24 2022


Can you point me to a specific section that says that? I did search that article before I made that comment. It said most of them have at least 16 cars approximately 82 feet long in the spot I saw.
-- 21 Quest, Apr 24 2022


They're individually sealed airtight units, each car being self propelled. That seems to be the opposite of what you're describing. It's called an Electric Multiple Unit train.
-- 21 Quest, Apr 24 2022


Well I've travelled on it and the carriages are continuous.
-- xenzag, Apr 24 2022


That's not my bone, btw. I'm neutral on this. Given that there *are* curves which are being taken at high speed, I have safety concerns here.
-- 21 Quest, Apr 25 2022


Hahahaha - "Over the Shinkansen's 50-plus-year history, carrying over 10 billion passengers, there has been not a single passenger fatality or injury on board due to derailments or collisions." The standards of engineering and safety in Japan are at level you simply cannot imagine. My experience of Japan is that everything works to total perfection. It's integral to their ethos. Travelling on a JR bullet train is probably being in one of the single safest places on earth.
-- xenzag, Apr 25 2022


Well yes, but they don't currently encourage people to sprint the length of the train whilst in transit lol
-- 21 Quest, Apr 25 2022


You've spotted what makes this a halfbaked idea.
-- xenzag, Apr 25 2022


Bridge!
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 25 2022



random, halfbakery