Theme I    Individual rail transport

A timetable and quantity structure will also be drawn up for the financing.

It is planned to build up 40,000 km of tracks incl. stops in cities in Germany within the next 10 years. (4,000 km per year)

• 1 km of rails approx. 4 million EUR
• Maintenance 500 EUR per km per year starting from the 2nd year onwards.
• IT costs 10 million for the first 4 years, then 7 million

Financing starts at 10% pro rata from the 2nd year (equivalent to 4,000 km) and increases by 10% each subsequent year until 100% and the 40,000 km is reached.

Of course, everyone can make their own calculation.

Which traffic turnaround do we mean?

What do we want to change?

Are we ready to change something or to change ourselves?

Boundless freedom according to the motto -free travel for free citizens- that is today's standard! Should we now reduce or limit this standard? Will we stick to diesel, petrol, gas, e-car or hydrogen cars on the roads, with the same space consumption and heavy vehicles of about 2 tons.

Or do we look for something equivalent or even better, where people and the climate are in the foreground.

Let's also think about other countries, other cultures,

Let's think of a global solution.

If we have to reinvent something, then we can first set our standards high, and then we can always reduce them.

Of course, driving at 4.50 m is annoying and looks awful.
Isn't driving on the street awful too, and the parked cars everywhere?
The huge areas of land we set aside for traffic instead of making the streets habitable.
The many accidents and damage to health caused by noise and air pollution are simply accepted?

A rail system with the magnetic rail technology of the TK-Elevator GmbH lift system (tower in Rottweil) and solar cells at a height of approx. 4.50 m with small lifts for barrier-free entry and exit. 

In 20 years, our grandchildren will ask us, how could you drive your car through the green spaces?

Wasn't that dangerous with so many children playing, pedestrians and cyclists?

Today we drive to our destination with our motorised individual transport, i.e. our car. In the future, we will drive to a lift nearby, which will lift us with our car (without getting out of the car) to a height of approx. 4.50 m and transport us autonomously to our destination via a rail system at a possible speed of approx. 70 km/h. At the destination, we are brought back down to street level by another lift. There we can continue driving as before or get out. After getting out, we can automatically send our vehicle to the car park. The vehicle drives autonomously (without occupants) back up to the next parking space (multi-storey car park). After shopping, for example, we can order our vehicle to some lift and get back in and drive to the next destination.

Almost all streets can be upgraded with this rail system according to need and sense, and lifts can be installed according to demand. Rush-hour traffic can also be regulated.

There are the own, private vehicles and public vehicles in different sizes and furthermore the present buses.

All vehicles, including those with trailers, motorbikes, lorries, buses and vintage cars, travel over this rail system in a climate-neutral, accident-free (Vision Zero), CO2-free manner, without fine dust and tyre abrasion, but outside the rail system with corresponding climate damage. Thus, there is an unproblematic smooth transition with today's vehicles to climate-neutral transport. The more rails that are built, the better the climate balance in the transport sector will be, without replacing vehicles. The rail system is basically barrier-free, but today's vehicles are unfortunately not yet.

The system can be flexibly built up with ecological prefabricated parts, and can be extended piece by piece. Uniform components ensure cost-effectiveness. It can also be used in long-distance transport. Not everything that is harmful to the environment today should be destroyed straight away, but should be transferred to a new future with cradle to cradle. So we continue to use our current vehicles with the new system. 

Special vehicles such as fire brigades, police etc. will continue to run outside the rail system.

The system costs a lot of money, but the climate damage and accidents basically cost more and more money.

We decide.

Over time, there will be new, different accessible, futuristic and lighter vehicles for the rail system. Then we will no longer need the self-driving vehicles of today. But we can't wait that long to build them up, because it's a fluid process that we have to get used to.

We first need the new services to give up our habits. That's the way we humans are.

Our congestion images that everyone knows, whether in the city or on the motorway. Today's traffic needs a lot of space.

New materials should be used to create the rails. The following materials are already available:
1. bridges made of recycled plastics in Great Britain
2. carbon concrete in Germany, among others,
3. new construction material is bonded with blastfurnace slag and no longer with cement. The pilot project in the Filder Tunnel as part of Stuttgart 21 was a complete success. Germany Austria.

Travelling the world in your own vehicle must always be guaranteed.

There was the cabin taxi in the 70s (test installation in Hagen) by Krauss Maffei.

The company Thyssen Krupp (today TK-Elevator GmbH) has presented a lift with the Transrapid technology (magnetic rail technology) in 2019, this lift can travel vertically and horizontally. These lifts are intended for buildings up to 1,000 m high. So if you can distribute over 2,000 people on many floors, at rush hour, you can also distribute many people in the area.

Now these two techniques are combined. The vehicles are transported on the rails at a height of about 4.50 m using magnetic rail technology. The rails will have solar cells to generate electricity. The system will generate its own electricity.

Switches, crossings are no longer a problem. Even our current cars (the motorised traffic, MV) can run on this rail system with special platforms in a climate-neutral way, also lorries and buses. This makes the roads usable for people in a new way. Green streets, free for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, habitable streets and much more is now possible.

The most important requirement is that the system must function worldwide with easy, problem-free transitions. Travelling around the world with your own vehicle must remain possible, just as it is today with your own car.

How to get on and off, of course barrier-free and if necessary slowly, with children, shopping, etc.

The vehicles drive into a lift shaft at the top, stop and are driven down with the rail. A second rail comes from above and closes the resulting gap and the next vehicle can drive through at the top. Now you can get on and off at the bottom in peace.

Since these stops are small, many of these stops can be set up according to demand. At railway stations, for example, 50 or more could be set up, behind or next to each other, just as bus stops are today. Theoretically, such a stop could be set up in front of every house door, but also in or at every company or school, so that people can get off directly in the building. The bus stops do not obstruct through traffic. 

This means that individual transport is possible from door to door at any time.

After alighting, the empty vehicle drives to a parking position and waits for the next service. Or one continues on the street as before.

All vehicles and the entire rail network are monitored by computers, as is already the case with many other means of transport. With the accessible mobile phone or similar, the customer calls in or his vehicle to his stop and after boarding he specifies his destination and is driven to his destination fully autonomously without changing trains. The computer controls the route. The customer is charged according to use. Such charging systems already exist and may have to be adapted to be barrier-free. The decision is up to each country.

There are many different vehicles for the public, i.e. for everyone, and everyone can also buy individual ownership vehicles, just like today. These private vehicles can also drive right up to one's own garage. After a journey, e.g. to work, anyone entitled can request the vehicle for other journeys, car sharing is possible autonomously.

There is no timetable, the vehicles are always available without charging or refuelling. The system remains open for future-oriented vehicles. The connection between rail and vehicle as well as rail and platform remains uniform.

Own and also public vehicles can be used.

Everyone, possibly from about 6 years of age, can drive with an appropriate mobile phone, smart card, or watch or similar. Recognition is automatic, the card remains in the pocket, simply get in and drive off, just like today with the car. If our current vehicle is used, a driver's licence is still required for further travel outside the rail system.

These vehicles can also drive with the system. For this purpose, there are platforms in the rail system, similar to a car transporter. At the stops, diesel vehicles, for example, drive onto the platform, park and switch off the engine. This platform drives with the vehicle, like all other vehicles, in the system to the destination. At the destination, one has to start the engine to continue driving and can continue on the road as today. Or you can get out and send the vehicle to the car park. So you can also use today's vehicles autonomously.

If necessary, automated connections will be built between the vehicle and the platform in order to be able to use electricity for the air conditioning, radio, etc. in the vehicle while driving. (Uniform connection is mandatory worldwide).

All current vehicles can be used in the rail system.

Trucks are a problem because of their size, length and weight. The rail system is therefore divided into 2 classes. Tracks with an approval for approx. 60 tonnes and an approval for approx. 4 tonnes. The computer knows these approvals and regulates the use of the tracks.

There will be platforms for the trucks, similar to those for the cars.  The trucks will be able to drive on the rail system with their current vehicles. Here, too, an automatic power connection will be built between the platform and the rail, for the cooling systems and vehicle technology. (Similar to the freight wagon of the rolling road).

The system remains open for new future requirements for freight transport.

All of today's trucks and buses can run on the tracks in the rail system.

The rail system can be built worldwide. The rails can be built street by street. At the start and end of the rail system, the vehicles are connected to the current roadway with the lifts.

Fast variable construction of the system, piece by piece.

Each vehicle travels in the system in a climate-neutral manner with all the requirements as described above.

In this way, the traffic turnaround can be implemented successively, without restrictions and without major conversion problems, even in small pieces.

 Each municipality can determine and regulate its own transport transition.

These vehicles are transported in the system in the same way as e.g. vintage cars, but with some safeguards, railings and supports for the vehicles to prevent them from tipping over and people from falling off.

Public transport with trams or buses is the responsibility of the municipalities. It is up to the local authorities to decide whether the new rail system will replace the conventional public transport system or whether it will continue to exist in parallel. In cities or in rural areas, decisions are made according to the expansion of the new system.

Accessible vehicles will be offered in the rail system, which will be developed as a public gender-neutral toilet. In addition, vehicles with toilets for people with reduced mobility will also be offered with extra-wide wheelchairs incl. attendants and care area. The equipment should correspond to a future standard.

All vehicles should be able to be cleaned quickly, easily and automatically. The vehicles can be requested via corresponding call codes and come to the appropriate stop. Clients board and travel to a quiet safe location if necessary. The customer then selects their destination and gets out. The vehicle then drives autonomously to the cleaning centre where it is automatically cleaned for the next use.

The toilet vehicles can be requested 7/24 hours at any stop throughout the system. A small risk of misuse, soiling and damage remains, as with all current vehicles and public spaces.

For people who want to go on holiday or who are often on business trips, vehicles are offered that are set up as an office with a bathroom and sleeping space. The other possibilities here are unlimited, as today with mobile homes, rolling office or rolling hotel room.

Packing stations, vending machines and much more can be set up automatically with the system at many stops for specific times or also at customer request. After finishing, they return autonomously, are cleaned, refilled, etc. and travel to the next stop. With this, business models that have become rare can even be provided 7*24 hours at the front doors, which can also help people with limitations, among other things.

In addition, from history, an interview with John Lennon in Germany,

Question of the reporter: "When do you go to the hairdresser?"

Answer from John Lennon: "Never, the hairdresser comes to us!"

So with the rail system, such offers at the stops are easier and automatic to realise.

If you find any errors, we are grateful for any advice.