http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/26/china-straddling-floating-bus-beat-traffic-jams Is this a model railway?
I thought that it was a bit far fetched, something from a science-fiction futuristic film/movie. However, it must have been great fun building the model.
I have seen a few such ideas on YouTube. Some are interesting, at least making me a bit curious. Others obviously are going to cost so much that they'd never get off the drawing board. And a few have me wonder what the originator was smoking.....
The first claim was 'pollution busting' which is nonsense. Either those will require massive combustion engines or large amounts of electricity, and China is the largest coal burner for electricity in the world. Second problem I see is tying up traffic even worse for the time it takes to install the rails. Third problem is oversized vehicles, can those busses make it over modern 18-wheelers or tandems? Getting back to the rails, imagine 1400 people (their claim) on a stuck bus that can't move beyond an accident that has fouled or worse yet damaged a rail. Evolution, not revolution is how to solve traffic problems. Why not dedicated bus lanes?
It might work better if it didn't run on rails. I see a design like the intermodal container cranes working better. It would still go over cars, but it could drive anywhere the road was wide enough, not just where there were rails. In China, I don't think road width is much of a problem on those big highways.
Gives you an idea how tight land use is in China, if they can't spare ten feet of width for a normal commuter train. Thing is, I've not seen that many drivers in the Orient who can keep a car in one lane, or who look over their shoulders before they merge onto a highway.
