I think I had the same concept in the 5th grade. The problem is infrastructure; you'd have to completely redesign the rail system (especially in the US) in order to make this work. Logistics of getting on and getting off the tracks and not interfering with other traffic on the rails is the primary problem. Still, it's definitely the kind of concept we need for more economical mass transit.

way to go backwards in technology JAPAN... geesh

Bus=Maximum Speed on a good downhill slope of 100 miles per hour.

Bullet Train=Obscenely Fast

Now class time to figure out the problem at hand, how long will it take for the Train to run over the bus filled with old people and not even notice.

I for one welcome my personal two-seater coupe that can go from roads to rails overlords...

It would not be difficult to install rail terminals to get these things on and off the tracks easily. this seems like a really good idea for companies like Greyhound that tranport people over long distances. This could really cut into the airlines on a lot of mid distance routes.

Just so you guys know this already exhists in my wife's hometown of kasugai near nagoya.. her father told me the bus we were on would turn into a train.. i thought he was joking and all opf a sudden we went up on tracks and literally it turned into a train as the wheels rose inside the buses body and then train wheels slid out.. it was one of the craziest things i have ever seen. her father said it was built 20 years ago.. so not sure why JR is excited about it.

Um, ever heard of High Rails? The railroads already use these convertible type vehicles to move everything from cars and trucks to flatbeds and cranes over the rails. This is not a new idea.

Besides, the problems aren't with infrastructure, it's with traffic control. Railroads are closed systems that are tightly controlled. For the most part, signals give you power and protection to move (meaning some other train won't come take your space on the track while you're there).

The last thing we need is a bunch of yahoos crashing their sport coupes into a freight train.

so, how do you overtake a slow or broken down bus?

Dont we already have trucks that can do this? They drive around fixing the tracks or signals. They can get off the trans tracks at any leval crossing.

I used to work for cn and we had trucks, cars, large towing vehicles and shuttles that used exactly this, and from the looks of some fo the vehicles they where from the 70's at least, and im guessing this tech is even older than that. not so much a new idea in the tech, maybe infrastructure wise it could be though.
All i know is around the southern ontario area, our rail switches are still controlled by a guy on a runner in a switchouse pulling old frankestein style switches and listening to a radio, nothing computer controlled yet.

Kinda sad, not much room for graffiti.

wow, uh...

http://www.cphpost.dk/get/76452.html
http://www.denmark.dk/portal/page?_pageid=374,920738&_dad=...

i saw this on a science channel special like 2 years ago