using the rail system for private, personal, transportation

[Rion D'Luz]

Humble apologies if posted to wrong group, but any input will
be appreciated. ?: Regardless of the motive force used by the engine
is it possible that the rail system can be used for personal mass-transit
on a large scale? By large scale, i mean perhaps 25-50,000 privately owned
or leased trains consisting of an engine and two or three cars.
What problems one could anticipate in the attempt to
modify the system for private transport? Can the carrier industry coexist
with a personal-transport segment in a fashion similiar to highway usage?

[Rob Landry]

In article <459dva$s...@davinci.netaxis.com>, xte...@netaxis.com says...

>
>Humble apologies if posted to wrong group, but any input will

>be appreciated. Regardless of the motive force used by the engine

>is it possible that the rail system can be used for personal
>mass-transit on a large scale?

My petidea is to run light rail down every street in a city, put small
bi-directional self-propelled cars on flanged wheels and use a central
computer to control traffic. Thus you would go into your "driveway" =
siding, get into your car and punch your destination into its on-board
computer. Your car would communicate with the central traffic-control
computer which would then find the best route and take you to your
destination.

For intercity trips you could (1) be taken to an Amtrak station, your car
then "deadheading" back to your driveway, or (2) be taken to a switching
yard where your car would be joined to a train composed of other such
cars bound for the same city.

Feasible?

Rob Landry
um...@cybercom.net

[HartBE]

Now that is something that I would like to see! My car deadheading back
to my house! That would really be quite a supercomputer. Although from
where I live, the nearest Amtrak station is 200 to 300 miles away. Quite
a distance for my car to go on its own.

Barry Hart