“Dynamic coupling” allows trains to pair up and unpair with each other while moving. A passenger service to one destination can couple with a freight service to another for part of its journey. While they are coupled, they count as one train in terms of the gap needed ahead and behind, freeing space for additional services.
DirecTrain Systems CEO Alberto Mandler[Missing Credit]
Rail operators have always been able to couple services together while stationary; the breakthrough here is doing so without stopping. Imagine two branch lines, each carrying 14 trains an hour.
If they merged into a single line, 28 trains would be a disaster waiting to happen. But with each of the 14 trains on the branch lines paired up, there would be seven pairs instead of 14 singles, and they would all fit safely. Mandler and Topf’s patented system is set to squeeze the maximum from expensive rail infrastructures that have never reached their full potential in the 200 years since George Stephenson gave the world his locomotive.
Services could become far more frequent and faster, because network capacity would effectively double.
Mandler believes the technology could cut journey times in Israel between Haifa and Tel Aviv from 55 minutes to just 35.
So how do they actually get trains to hook up and unhook at speed? “It’s our secret exactly how we do it,” says Mandler. Instead of trying to control the trains directly, they use an assisted mechanism that helps the connection. “We’re experts in installing new systems in aircraft. We were responsible for refuelling planes in the air force and we’re taking those technologies to trains. The mechanism has some similarities.”
Moti Topf[Missing Credit]
Planes fly at about 435mph with six degrees of freedom; trains slow to 25 mph to couple or uncouple, with just one degree of freedom – seemingly a simpler problem. Yet the task of positioning the front of train A to reach – but not hit – the back of train B at speed is mind‑boggling, especially when the tech for 25mph hook‑ups is designed to scale to about 75mph.
The first trains to be fitted with the technology will be freight rather than passenger trains, specifically those carrying parcels for e-commerce.
“That’s our first product target market,” they say. “It’s called the middle mile, delivering to a main hub outside the city. At the moment it’s only done by trucks, because trains entering the city have reached 100 per cent capacity.”
With the DirecTrains technology, one small train for parcels could keep up to 15 trucks off the roads.
The team, based in Zichron Ya’akov, northern Israel, has tested its technology in France and now has two patents. They are also in advanced talks with a national railway operator towards a formal commercial pilot and hope to carry out tests in the US to validate the technology for the North American market.
