Single Rail STU System

Single rail STU systems are capable of solving many current transport problems - for both passengers and freight.

For inner city passenger transportation, single rail systems can allow safe transport of thousands of passengers every hour - at speeds of up to 110kph! Imagine being able to transport 50 people 3 km across the busiest part of the city in less than 3 minutes.

What about if we added that you could transport these passengers over this distance with a fuel economy of just 2 litres per 100 km?

All of the above can be achieved with a single rail STU system.

Key components

There are three key components to the Single Rail STU system: the string-rail, the station-building and the STU UniBus module. The string-rail is the cable/beam that spans between two consecutive station-buildings along the selected route. The STU UniBus module is the passenger car, which runs along the suspended string-rails.

(Please note that if you haven't already done so, it would probably be helpful to read the Technical Description page before reading this page)

String Rail Track

The string-rail is an ordinary, continuous (along the whole length) steel-reinforced beam equipped with a rail head, reinforced with pre-stressed steel wire ropes. The tensile strength comes from the multiple steel wires; the smooth ride comes from the beam that encloses the steel wires.

The rails are tensioned to 50 - 200 tonnes and generally have a maximum sag of 50 metres.

Station Building

Passenger Station in High Rise BuildingThe supports for the string-rails are constructed as high-rise buildings. These support towers can be located up to three kilometres apart along the selected route. The station building shown to the right is just one possible prototype design solution.

There are many uses for the station buildings - from office space to apartments or motels.

STU UniBus Module

A single rail UniBus has significant advantages over traditional modes of urban passenger transportation. It is the most energy efficient form of mass transportation known.

Part of its efficiency results from the small aerodynamic losses and extremely low rolling resistance of steel wheels. Also, under inner city operating conditions (ie frequent stops every 0.5—1.5 km) it does not need any engine to accelerate at the open line or any brakes to brake before stops. Both acceleration and braking are performed by gravity due to the string-rail sag having a preliminary assigned value.

At the first part of travel between the stations a single rail UniBus is moving downhill so it does not need any engine to accelerate smoothly to the speed of 100 km/hour and more. At the second part of travel it is moving uphill so brakes are not needed - which eliminates additional energy losses. Of course, brakes are available for other functions such as emergency and final stopping. Therefore, a 40-seat UniBus with just a small 6 kW engine is capable to gain the speed of 100 km/hour at a 1 km span (open line). On the other hand, a 40-seat bus has a 100 kW engine, and no high-cost measures undertaken at the present time (such as energy recuperators, hydrogen and combined engines, fuel batteries, etc.) will improve its energy efficient to bring it even close to the efficiency of a UniBus.

In terms of comfort of inner city trips, passengers will experience noiseless, high-speed, congestion free, travel, complete beautiful bird's-eye views, no bumps or shakes, smooth acceleration and braking.