I recently linked to Treehugger‘s coverage of the Transit Elevated Bus. Now Treehugger‘s Lloyd Alter is pointing out that in 1969 Lester Walker came up with idea of the Landliner:
The Bos-Wash Landliner rides on nearly friction free air cushion bearings at 200 miles per hour. It is powered by turbine powered ducted fan-jets that have a regenerator cycle to consume the hot exhaust. Much like the Chinese system, it is designed to use existing roads without obstructing the traffic on them. …
Because it is traveling farther, it has more facilities than the Chinese version and sports a gymnasium, theater, restaurants, snack bars, ballrooms, conference rooms and observation decks.
There is no jarring starting and stopping at stations like there is with regular trains either, because the Landliner never stops.
Never stops? Treehugger quotes Walker:
Both bus and landliner are travelling at 60 mile per hour, their speeds locked together by computer; then a great claw descends from the landliner to “swallow” the bus. Once inside, passengers disembark and enjoy the facilities. Since the buses circle a city picking up commuters, driving the car to the station and leaving it all day will be a thing of the past.
An ambitious vision.
