Dynamic Trials-Safety

Sky Bus Metro Technology: A statement of responsibility made

in public interest!

Need: Cities are having limited urban space and any road based solution to decongest

is self-defeating because mass transit  cannot be suatained, as it demands urban space.

Rail based rapid transit gives mass transport but elevated and underground options,

have priced themselves out of current economy- they are now white elephants.

The technology breakthrough is the Sky Bus Metro, flexible to follow exisiting roadways,

but having rail based mass transit capacity- to deliver 300 to 400 commuters within

20m length and 3m wiidth, at near to 100 kmph. Designed for rate of flow of commuters

requires little land and allows existing traffic to continue, forms a grid for the city,

providing point to point, air-condition service, eliminating additional expenditure on 

inter-modal transfer costs.

The same time tested rail technology components are used, re-eingineered to improve

stability and increase safety against derailments to create Sky Bus Metro technology.

How a short bus of 20m length ( Bus is a misnomer- infact it is equal to normal coach

length of a train- the same under-frame and wheel-bogies used- with two Sky Bus coaches

each of 9.5 m suspended over the wheels, traveling on twin rail tracks overhead enclosed

in a concrete box, with stations of length 50m only constructed at roadside providing

access, handle 20,000 to 80,000 passengers per hour?

Headway-turn round times:

In a railway, where a train of  200m has to negotiate 100m of turn out more than

once to change tracks in a yard at low speeds of 15 kmph- means 300m traversing

at low aspeed of 15 kmph.Hence turn round times of

72

secs per one turn out

and finally adding the acceleration and deceleration times for 200m to come to a stop

makes it difficult to achieve 60 second turn round times.

For the same signalling system, Sky Bus has less turn round time.

In Sky Bus it is a matter of 20m coach shifted by 5 mt at 1 m per second and acceleration

and deceleration times for covering only 20m length for self-length, which makes it

possible to have turn round times of less than one minute.

Skybus is a railway, which has eliminated derailments, and provided positive connection

between the tracks and bogies, thus eliminating any chance of capsizing of coaches.

So within 20m length , instead of lot of dead steel, Skybus carries more load of people.

We can design to carry 300 to 430 persons per 20m length ,consisting of 2x9.5m units.

Capacity:

At 300 to 400 persons per a 20m long Sky Bus consist per hour can handle at 1 min

headway, 300 or 400 x 60x 2 directions=

36000

pax or

48000

per hour

This is per one route. The use of two consists with total length of 40m only

can give 72000 or 96000 pax per hour! This is what heavy underground metro also

delivers.

A city can have 4 routes of 15 km each and 4 routes of 10 km cutting across

forming a grid covering about 150 sq km which can provide commuter

capacity to move 60 to 70 lac per day! The roads will be totally decongested!

Financial overview:

Existing cost for travel bus/auto + charge for metro, replaced by only Sky Bus charge.

At a daily spend of Rs 50 per day on average for floating population of 5 lacs.

and regular commuters of 30 lacs paying monthly Rs 500 per 1000km travel,

we get annually Rs

1800

cr plus

900

cr from floating population.

At Rs 55 cr perkm the 100 km costs Rs 5500 cr and running expenditure

is about Rs 850 cr , leaving a balance of Rs 1850 cr per annum surplus!

It means surplus

34%

of capital which makes the project

financially sustainable. In Mumbai 61 lac journeys take place on suburban rail.

Safety:

The system is basically a railway with improved suspension systems and patented features.

The norms for safety clearance for dynamic behaviour, as per railway rolling stock

are applied and checked if any adverse results come because of suspended coaches

below the wheels. The measurements were made by the RDSO( Research Designs and

Standards Organisation, Ministry of Railways) during Jan 2005.

Speed

Braking Distance meters

Vertical

Transverse

Longitudinal

Kmph

Max accn g

RI

Max accn  g

RI

Max accn  g

RI

60

136

0.036

1.703

0.026

1.788

0.052

2.136

70

174

0.122

2.692

0.04

2.003

0.077

2.395

Excellent

Excellent

Excellent

Excellent

Excellent

Excellent

Permissible limits

Max.Acceleration 0.3g  going upto 0.35 g if no resonance is observed.

Ride Index (RI): 3.25 normal , can go upto 4.0 for EMU and DEMU

Train control is as per Railway standards and Motorman driven observing

 Railway General rules.- even with this Sky Bus, a short unit of 20m,yields 1min headway.

Structurally the Codes of Practice observed and the Schedule of Dimensions fixed ,moving

checked to find that design and actual conditions in dynamic conditions are satisfactory.

The performance is much better than the prescribed limits as evident from the figures.

The World's First test track has yielded excellent results showing the superior behaviour of

Sky Bus technology based Metro.

Skybus is an improved railway technology- so as much proven as railway technology!

Unique to Sky Bus metro- eco-friendly solution:

Eliminates need for polluting trucks enter the city and congest roads.- others cannot.

Even after spending two to four times more for setting up the existing Metro

 technology based, elevated or underground metros, city will still suffer from problems of

inter-modal bridging through buses, and for moving cargo into city as well as

garbage removal, trucks still enter the city, polluting the same.

Only in the Sky Bus technology cargo as well as house keeping functions can

be automatically be handled, eliminating trucks into city or carry trucks like in RO-RO

service to the last point of dispersal- minimising or eliminating the pollution.

Bharata Ratna Dr Abdul Kalam has described Sky Bus technology as gift of our

nation to the world.

The patent rights granted by USA and other countries are assigned by

the inventor Mr. B. Rajaram FIE, FNAE, to the people of the country through

Konkan railway Corprn.

Way forward:

Government of India has to take a view to classify the Sky Bus to be under

Railway Act or enact a parallel act called Sky Bus Metro Act to put in Safety Certification

process for commercial runs as is done for Railways. Else straightaway adopt existing

 old Tramway Act 18xx, state controls.

Konkan Railway has invited bids for technology licensing of the Sky Bus to private

parties, to take up city wise on FBOT basis Sky Bus projects- they have to pay only 

Rs 5 cr royalty per route km , as one time payment to Konkan Railway Corporation.

Common urbanite after travelling for 7 years at Rs 500 per month, gets a chance to

 travel free for life!

Sky Bus design, construction and performance can be assured to satisfy the prevailing

international norms for such suspended rail based systems- and the average cost of

Rs 36 cr per km including rolling stock at the test track , assures one that it is possible to

construct Sky Bus at Rs 50 cr perkm in a commercial project.

Our Indian industry is capable of delivering commercial system this year.

A vast business opportunity involvimg more than Rs 100,000 cr awaits to take

off - delay in Governments taking a decision costs very dearly by allowing the old unsafe

metro rails being laid at twice to four times the cost of Skybus-but still suffer from

pollution of city as well as financial nightmare of sustaining the same for lifetime!

B.Rajaram M.Tech., FIE.,FNAE

Stated in public interest and

signed as inventor & Former M.D.

Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd.,

Flat 205/2-2-15, B9, Durgabai Deshmukh Colony,Hyderabad 500007

Email: rajaram.bojji@gmail.com       URL: www.geocities.com/rajaram_bojji

Tel. +91 40 274 00 365