Engineering.Evolved.S01E02
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00:00The following program is rated PG and may contain mature subject matter.
00:05Viewer discretion is advised.
00:07Since the invention of the wheel, humans have pushed the boundaries and possibilities to go faster, higher, and deeper than ever before.
00:35The engineering evolution of cars, ships, planes, trains, submersibles, and rockets has been a monumental journey of inspiration, innovation, sometimes failure, and success.
00:48So how did we get to where we are now, and where are we going next?
01:14No other form of transportation has barreled through mountains, plunged underwater, and connected continents like trains.
01:21Trains are crucial to our modern day society. They're pivotal in human history and delivering goods and getting people to where they need to go.
01:28Further advancements in technology and engineering promise to continue the long legacy of rail transportation, while transforming trains to fit the needs of the future.
01:39We can literally automate the entire train system of the world.
01:44Before cars or planes, trains laced a trail for the future of travel and technology.
01:51How will our ever-shifting landscape and rapidly changing technologies shape the future of one of the world's oldest forms of transportation?
02:00At a thousand kilometers an hour on a train, you will be approaching the speed of sound.
02:08From the high-speed transport of a bullet train, to slow luxury trains winding their way through vistas, to the hustle and bustle of metro systems throughout the world's cities.
02:20It has taken centuries of trial and error, groundbreaking innovation, and a desire to push past the limits of what seems possible to reach a point where trains are literally floating right off the tracks.
02:33Soon, single-train autonomous tracks will be a thing of the past. Metro systems will be well-orchestrated symphonies of multiple carriages, each running constant safety checks and analysis from their own internal intelligence systems.
02:47The next generation of trains coming around the bend promise to go further, travel faster, and reduce risk and emissions.
02:55But to do so, engineers have had to constantly rethink and reimagine how trains operate, going as far as to question if the future of rail should involve tracks at all.
03:05Trains will evolve over time. They're going to get faster and faster. This is a fixed system that's really easy to control from an engineering point of view.
03:14All good inventions come from the desire to solve a problem. In the case of rails, it has always been to move mass amounts of people and things with minimal effort.
03:24One of the wildest train concepts that exist today is the TransPod flux jet transportation system.
03:31This novel idea has the potential to be a major innovation in the world of high-speed train travel.
03:37TransPod is laying the groundwork for their ambitious plan to connect the Canadian cities of Edmonton and Calgary using an incredible high-speed train traveling 1,000 kilometers an hour.
03:49It is estimated this 300-kilometer journey will take just 45 minutes.
03:54When you're reaching 1,000 kilometers an hour, you're near the speed of sound.
03:58TransPod does not use train tracks, nor does it rely on a vacuum like Hyperloop, a concept that uses low-pressure tubes to propel passenger pods at near sonic speeds.
04:09To achieve their far-reaching goal, the TransPod system will use moving electromagnetic fields to propel their vehicles using stable levitation from the top surface.
04:19Their space-age vehicle, called the flux jet, is super-aerodynamic, like a trackless flying bullet train.
04:26But this ultra-modern system may still be light-years away. Initial construction has yet to begin.
04:32Although this futuristic concept seems like total science fiction, its DNA carries the remnants of the origins of railways.
04:40So if we go back to the ancient world, it will surprise you to know that we did have trains.
04:45But at that time, trains were really where roads had dug-in specific tracks.
04:51And basically, you could hook your oxen to a cart, put the cart wheels in the track, and the oxen couldn't pull the cart out of the track.
05:00And you could essentially let the oxen walk your goods all the way to its destination.
05:06And that's really the idea of a train, is we have a fixed-track system and a wheeled vehicle that sits on that.
05:13Now we look at the trains we have today, and the concept still hasn't changed.
05:17While oxcarts served their purpose in early societies, their success kick-started a global demand for goods at higher volume and much faster pace.
05:26One of the most innovative and exciting times in history, the Industrial Revolution, brought the solution everyone was waiting for, the steam train.
05:35But with the invention of the steam engine, we suddenly were able to harness power that we never had access to before,
05:43allowing us to pull much longer and much further and much more powerfully than we could before.
05:50Because all we need to make a steam, we need to boil water, kettle on the stove.
05:55We had coal stoves, so we just thought, OK, we'll make a big stove in a train.
06:00When steam expands and contracts, it can move objects.
06:05And when we figured out how to make and control that movement in a way to spin a wheel,
06:11we suddenly figured out how to harness that work that that steam is doing to push a rotor that would then propel an engine forward.
06:21We use coal to create heat. Heat boils water. The water produces high-pressure steam.
06:27The steam is allowed to flow into a cylinder with a piston in it.
06:30The steam expands, pushing on the cylinder. The cylinder is attached to a shaft.
06:35That shaft is connected eccentrically to a wheel, causing the wheel to turn as the shaft moves in and out with the piston.
06:42The first steam-powered locomotive hit the rails in the 1800s, and from then on, it was full steam ahead.
06:49This initial innovation inspired generations of engineers to keep pushing mechanical and physical boundaries.
06:55Around the same time, a concept for what would become the world's wildest version of a train was also invented, the pneumatic system.
07:03This is the foundation of Hyperloop.
07:06For those of us that are of a particular age, I'm sure we've seen those pneumatic tubes from either commercials or maybe some old TV shows
07:15where you drop in a little cylinder and something sucks it away.
07:19But there were practical limitations and safety concerns that would see the idea of using low-pressure tubes shelved for hundreds of years,
07:27as steam trains and engines become the vanguard of 17th-century technology.
07:32The problem with steam trains is that their engines were very greedy, and with coal, they were very expensive and very labor-intensive.
07:40It would take quite a long time for a steam engine to even build up steam,
07:43so you would have crews of people working for hours ahead of even taking a journey.
07:47In 1912, Switzerland developed the first diesel-powered train.
07:51This was game-changing for trains.
07:53Previously, we went from having people having to shovel coal into a steam engine,
07:56but now you could use a contained fuel source that was easy enough to refill
08:00to have an engine that was putting out a consistent amount of power for the duration of your trip.
08:05When the diesel engine was developed for trains, it became almost overnight the most dominant method of choice to propel trains.
08:13And even to this day, a lot of how freight is moved is through diesel engines.
08:18The reason why this became the dominant force is just mainly due to its efficiency and its power output.
08:24Why don't we use gasoline in trains? Why do we use diesel? It's simple.
08:28Accessible heavy fuel, easily transportable, very stable, doesn't burn up like gasoline.
08:34It's a slow mover because it's a compression engine. It doesn't spark.
08:38In gasoline, you have a spark every time, you got a power, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, it's good power.
08:43Diesel develops power through time, so it starts slow, it pulls it, and it has far more energy output.
08:50So for volume of diesel burn, I can pull more.
08:54Yeah, so diesel technology definitely made train transportation much more efficient,
09:00longer distances, lower fuel costs, and higher speeds all coupled together.
09:05Diesel engines are a step up from steam, but they still wreak havoc on the environment and max out at a top speed of 238 kilometres per hour.
09:14That's nothing compared to some trains out there today.
09:18Inventors and engineers look to an avant-garde power source to push trains to speeds and distances that were once unimaginable.
09:26Electricity.
09:28While electric train vehicles sound relatively new, they've actually been around way longer than we think.
09:33In fact, the first electric train predates the first diesel train.
09:37In 1837, Robert Davidson invented the first galvanic cell.
09:41The problem with this battery is that it was incredibly heavy and had a limited range.
09:46When we go back and look at the first electric trains, there wasn't the electrical infrastructure that we have today to support them.
09:53And batteries pose a few problems.
09:55They don't hold a lot of charge.
09:57We can't get a lot of power in a small area.
09:59And they're also really heavy.
10:01The earliest batteries were lead acid, again, a very heavy material.
10:05So the first electric trains that ran on batteries were limited to very short distances and didn't have a lot of capability.
10:13Batteries nowadays have made massive strides from the galvanic cell.
10:172021 saw a major push for companies to explore and test battery-powered train systems
10:23after a dramatic decline in battery prices made the tech much more appealing.
10:28You can imagine a scenario now, as batteries have advanced, going back to some of the original concepts of using batteries to electrify trains.
10:36And this would really help cut down on emissions.
10:38For the train industry, we've moved away from lead acid batteries, which were very big and took a long time to charge.
10:44Now, the industry standard is sort of a lithium-ion battery, which is pretty common in most electrified transport.
10:49And it's lighter, smaller, and offers a much faster charge-up.
10:53N700S bullet train in Japan in 2020 was one of the first examples of using the lithium-ion batteries in the trains.
11:04So it was used as a fail-safe system in case the power was not available, then the train could switch to the battery.
11:14Early battery technology could not hold enough power to move locomotives fast, far, or very long.
11:20Innovation in battery power and charging technology are working to get batteries to the point where they can.
11:26To keep these electric trains powered up on the rails, new ideas around charging stations are emerging.
11:32You could imagine something like battery swaps, or you could have dedicated fast charging stations.
11:37You could do things like regenerative braking.
11:39Especially in cargo trains, we have a huge mass.
11:42We have thousands and thousands of tons of mass moving.
11:46This mass has a huge amount of kinetic energy associated with it.
11:50When we use conventional brakes, we actually convert all that kinetic energy into heat and simply waste it.
11:57So with regenerative braking, what we actually do is we put generators on our locomotives, or in our rail cars,
12:04and we, instead of wasting that energy as heat, we convert it back into electrical energy and recharge batteries.
12:11So part of electrifying trains with batteries is using regenerative braking systems,
12:16which helps save some of that energy which otherwise would be wasted as heat.
12:21But batteries do not come without their own challenges.
12:24Mining the materials needed for modern battery technology has serious environmental impacts.
12:29We need to continue to develop mining techniques that are environmentally friendly.
12:34But there may be limits to how sustainable mining can be.
12:37But for trains, there might be an even greener alternative that doesn't use batteries at all.
12:42Another potential future for a greener train system would be to not use batteries, but to instead use a hydrogen fuel cell.
12:49In concept, a hydrogen fuel cell is going to be much cleaner because we actually get the hydrogen from water,
12:55and then after the chemical reaction that allows propulsion, the byproducts are not some kind of carbon emission,
13:00but instead water vapor that just re-enters the air.
13:03Hydrogen fuel cells are also much more efficient than a lithium-ion cell would be.
13:07The more we can electrify systems or rely on things like cleaner technologies like hydrogen fuel cells, the greener the industry can be.
13:16In September 2022, the world's first hydrogen fuel cell-powered passenger train traveled a record-breaking 1,175 kilometers across Germany without refueling.
13:28Making barely any noise and creating zero emissions, this success is paving the way for greener trains to own the future.
13:36In June 2023, the Caradia Island train made its debut in Quebec, Canada, the first hydrogen-powered train in North America.
13:45Boasting a top speed of 140 kilometers per hour, its acceleration and braking are comparable to a standard diesel train.
13:53Only 1% of North American rails are electrified, but this environmentally-friendly vehicle doesn't require electrified rails,
14:01which could make it the perfect choice for a greener way forward.
14:05It took over 100 years for battery technology to develop enough to power trains,
14:10but in the late 1800s, innovators sought new ways of achieving connectivity on the rails.
14:16In 1879, Werner von Siemens developed an electric locomotive that actually drew its power from the rails that it was on,
14:24rather than from batteries stored in the train.
14:26The whole system worked by having looped copper wire placed on the rails of the track itself,
14:31and then the train would roll over this and actually conduct electricity through the wire.
14:35This was a really big development, and it worked very well to power the trains,
14:38but it presented a huge safety issue, that now you were working with a train track that was lying on the ground
14:44that was electrified and could harm people who walked over it.
14:47Once we start getting a large-scale electrical system around the world,
14:51we start realizing that we can power trains with electricity.
14:55We can use electric motors and use some type of conductors around the tracks to provide the power to move the trains.
15:02This is ideal. We don't have to carry the weight of the diesel engine.
15:06We don't have to carry the weight of the fuel.
15:09It can be done with much cleaner power sources like hydroelectric power,
15:12and it can be done with more efficient energy generation means.
15:16So there's a lot of desire to produce electrification of rail systems.
15:20About 30% of modern trains today are electrified.
15:23That represents about 375,000 kilometres of train track.
15:28You have to be able to conduct the electricity into the train itself to power the motors.
15:34That's not that easy to do.
15:36If you electrify the rails themselves, steel rails aren't that conductive, you lose a lot of power.
15:41On top of that, if anything bridges between the two rails, say a person, they get electrocuted.
15:47So you either have to use some type of external system, either above or below the train.
15:53After the invention of the electric powertrain, three cutting-edge contact systems were developed
15:58that are still being used to power electric trains today.
16:02Modern rail systems either use a third or a third and fourth rail below the train or an overhead wire system.
16:09As overhead wires become common in cities, it was an obvious choice for innovators to utilize them to power trains.
16:17Trains use a device called a pantograph, which is attached to the train
16:20and outstretches toward the catenary or the overhead lines.
16:24When these two things connect, that actually completes the electric circuit
16:27that allows the train to derive its power from the overhead lines.
16:30And that wire system actually doesn't run parallel to the tracks, it actually zigzags.
16:36You could imagine that if the lines were perfectly straight and constant,
16:40that means that the pantograph system is always on the same contact with the power lines.
16:45After a while, just through wear and tear, you could foresee the power lines breaking apart
16:51and causing some sort of catastrophic behavior.
16:54And so having the system kind of broken up in these zigzag shapes
16:59is a way of trying to prevent, or at the very least delay, a process like that from occurring.
17:05The famed Albula line in Switzerland is a stunning example
17:09of how overhead power systems can work in extreme environments.
17:13Borrowing concepts from electric cars,
17:16a sustainable energy system allows this 1.9-kilometer train
17:20to travel 25 kilometers through the spectacular alpine landscape.
17:25As its brakes are applied during the dramatic descent,
17:28a regenerative energy recovery system kicks in,
17:31feeding electricity back to the overhead power lines.
17:35If you're not using an overhead wire, the most common system then becomes the third rail.
17:41Third rails are used in underground subway systems where trains are operating in confined spaces.
17:46Basically, this is a system of conductors that's located either under the tracks or beside the tracks.
17:53A pneumatic shoe attached to the train makes contact with the third rail to complete the power circuit.
17:58To prevent people from making contact with the live line,
18:01a protective cover is used on the third rail,
18:03and in some high-traffic areas, the third rail may be removed completely for a portion of the track.
18:08In this case, the train runs on its existing momentum
18:11and reconnects to the third rail further down the track.
18:14Even though the third rail is safe for the public,
18:16in underground systems we sometimes need an additional safety element, the fourth rail.
18:22One of the problems with electricity is we can get stray current.
18:26One of the problems with electricity is we can get stray current.
18:29In underground systems, that can be a big problem.
18:32What happens is if we don't have a good ground to dissipate our electricity,
18:38that electricity can build up on metallic objects in and around the subway.
18:43And that's a big problem when you have steel line tunnels or iron line tunnels.
18:48Because steel and iron can corrode, when we apply a current to it,
18:53we can actually rapidly accelerate the corrosion and cause failure of the steel line tunnel.
18:58For this reason, in specific applications, we use a fourth rail.
19:02In the London Underground, we need a fourth rail
19:05because many of the tunnels are very old and lined with cast iron.
19:10We use the fourth rail to conduct away any stray currents
19:14so that we don't get corrosion happening on our tunnel lining.
19:18An additional benefit of the fourth rail system
19:21is that isolated currents allow a train's position to be detected.
19:25Train detection is a critical element of signaling systems,
19:28which are essential for railways to operate.
19:31Knowing the location of a train can be life or death
19:34for both passengers and train maintenance workers,
19:36especially in underground tunnels.
19:38The London Underground can reach 80 kilometers per hour,
19:41which is impressive, but it's not nearly the limit for ultra-modern electric trains.
19:46After World War II, Japan sought to alleviate congestion
19:49by developing the world's first very high-speed train.
19:52They developed the Tokyo to Osaka Shinkansen bullet train.
19:56When it opened in 1968, the train could reach 210 kilometers per hour,
20:00and it did this by incorporating what were sort of the modern trappings of the day,
20:04continuously welded rail design, streamlined shape, and electrified rails.
20:08But today, we're able to reach speeds of 310 kilometers per hour.
20:12The rapid evolution of railway transportation pushed trains beyond their capabilities
20:17to outpace trains in the past.
20:19New innovations in engines, shape, wheels, and rails were a major necessity.
20:24High-speed rail is really something that's become important.
20:27It really helps us move people around continents relatively quickly.
20:31To have high-speed rail, we need welded rails.
20:34By using continuously welded rails, we could do away with unwanted points of friction.
20:39So when you're rolling along a continuous rail,
20:42there's really nothing stopping you from rolling further.
20:46But now imagine you have this rail broken up into sections,
20:49and they all flex just a little bit.
20:51As you approach one of those sections, if the other section is maybe a little bit higher,
20:55now you've got to use energy to climb that little step.
20:59And that energy has to come from somewhere,
21:01and it comes from the energy that you're using to roll the train along.
21:04So if we can get rid of all those little steps,
21:07all that extra energy goes directly into powering the train and making it go faster.
21:12The continuous rail also adds a factor of safety.
21:15You're moving along at a high speed,
21:17and if you can eliminate any vibrations or motions of that train,
21:21that could at worst derail it.
21:23You've gone towards making that train much safer for the occupants inside.
21:28But even with continuous rails in operation,
21:31operators have to ensure that the present railway systems remain as safe as possible.
21:36MXV Rail in the United States is applying cutting-edge technology
21:40from other industries to train tracks across the country.
21:43Electromagnetic Field Imaging, or EMFI,
21:47was first used in the oil and gas sector to monitor corrosion.
21:51Recent trials indicate that EMFI technology
21:54is able to determine the surface condition of the track,
21:57giving rail employees valuable information about when track maintenance is needed.
22:02This awesome discovery could seriously reduce the amount of worldwide rail accidents.
22:07Since this tech allows rail infrastructure to be monitored more thoroughly.
22:11When trains are carrying passengers or cargo,
22:14well-maintained tracks are absolutely essential.
22:17However, what's been traveling on these tracks has seen immense change down the ages.
22:22As new systems come online, engineers have had to rethink the very shape of a train.
22:28Trains needed to become more aerodynamic,
22:30and that made the switch from more bulky trains to more streamlined design trains.
22:35Early trains weren't shaped like bullets.
22:38They were flat in the front, and they would displace a bunch of air as they moved along.
22:43But because the drag force is exponentially proportional to the velocity,
22:50as we increased velocity, the drag forces became exponentially higher.
22:55So while they didn't matter for the steam trains that went relatively slowly,
22:59when we wanted to increase our speed,
23:01we suddenly had to take those drag forces into account,
23:05and we had to shape those trains in a way to limit those forces as much as possible.
23:10So you see a lot of high-speed trains being called bullet trains
23:13because they really have a shape, especially in the front, that makes them look like a bullet.
23:18A lot of that work was done early on by trial and error.
23:21So that would involve both making prototypes,
23:24but also making scale models and testing them in wind tunnels, for example,
23:28where you can actually mimic the conditions that you see under operating conditions.
23:32But more and more these days, of course, we use computer models,
23:35and there's much less need for wind tunnels to be part of that thinking,
23:38although at the end of the day, still use wind tunnels to be able to test out
23:43and make sure the models are operating correctly.
23:45With less drag holding trains back, the speed of trains rapidly increased,
23:50getting commuters and passengers to their destinations in record time.
23:54Where we primarily see high-speed trains being used
23:57is between areas of relatively high population density.
24:00So we have big cities that are in relatively close proximity
24:04that we can build really direct train tracks in between.
24:08With high-speed trains, you really can't be going over other tracks
24:12or stopping for level crossings.
24:14These have to be very highly engineered systems.
24:17So they're used primarily in places in Asia where you have very high population densities,
24:22Japan and China, in certain parts of Europe, again,
24:25where you have very high population densities.
24:27They don't translate well to North America
24:29because we have much larger distances between our major population centers.
24:34We don't have the means or the economics or the drive to lay down tracks
24:39that can take these high-speed rails, which are significant economic capital cost.
24:45Right off the get-go, the Japanese decided to develop dedicated lines for the Shinkansen
24:51so they were separate from not just the freight railway line
24:54but also the conventional passenger railway line.
24:58In contrast to what happened in Europe,
25:00that separate line covers the entire system, so right into the stations.
25:04That means you can operate these speeds at high speed until very close to the stations
25:08and then just break as you're coming into the individual stations.
25:11With trains reaching high speeds,
25:13they provide an excellent alternative to other methods of traveling between cities.
25:17If you're looking to take a couple-of-hour flight,
25:20then trains become very competitive as a form of transportation.
25:23The plane will ultimately fly faster than the train can travel,
25:26but aviation comes with a series of obstacles that you have to encounter before and after the flight,
25:31whereas trains have made this much easier.
25:33Trains take you right into the middle of the city.
25:36Planes deposit you somewhere outside the city and you've got to find your way in,
25:39so that adds additional cost and time and so on.
25:43So trains can often be, even if the actual length of the train trip is a bit longer,
25:49trains can be more efficient than planes.
25:51Before a train can pick up passengers and hit the rails,
25:55all the moving parts must be in perfect shape,
25:57and one of the most critical elements is the wheels.
26:00Using high-tech machines, highly specialized workers create different-sized wheels
26:05to attach to locomotives and wagons.
26:07Wheels must pass through inspections before moving on to the next stage.
26:11Once the initial manufacturing process is done,
26:14wheels are put through lathe machines to ensure a smooth ride across the tracks.
26:18Lathes aren't only used on brand-new train wheels.
26:21They also recut damaged wheels that have been worn down or compromised.
26:25But when it comes to travel in the train world,
26:28a new type of train that does away with wheels completely has sparked major excitement.
26:33Railway innovation has come so far, and there's so many new exciting designs,
26:38and one of them is the Maglev.
26:40This is where the train levitates above the railway track.
26:43It's something out of a science fiction movie.
26:45The Maglev train, which stands for magnetic levitation,
26:48is actually replacing the wheels of the train so that the train isn't sitting on tracks,
26:52but rather, using electromagnets, it is levitating above the track.
26:56This essentially cuts out all friction and a tremendous amount of rotating parts,
27:01and it allows the train to travel much faster than a wheeled train ever could.
27:05As innovative and new as this technology may seem,
27:08the first patented train system to use magnetic levitation dates back to 1937.
27:15In the 1890s, French engineer and inventor Emile Bachelet
27:19began working on a system that harnesses the power of magnetic forces for the use of electromagnetics.
27:26If you consider two magnets, if you put the magnets in the same direction,
27:31like N pole opposite to the M pole,
27:35there would be a repulsive force that somehow floats the other magnet.
27:40So we put electromagnets inside of the rail and inside of the train,
27:45make those two repel from one another,
27:47and we can levitate that train on a very long track.
27:51Maglev trains don't just use the magnets to levitate above the tracks.
27:55They also use magnets to turn the tracks into a motor pulling the train forward.
27:59You're not relying on the wheel turning to be able to move the train forward.
28:03Within a motor, basically we're attracting and repelling
28:07the north and south poles attached to a shaft to cause rotary motion.
28:11If we take that and flatten it out, we can actually make a linear motor.
28:17So we actually have north and south pole electromagnets buried in the track.
28:23And as the train moves, these poles push the train along the track and give it its speed.
28:31One magnetic field is used to levitate the carrier, while the other is used to make it move.
28:36The magnets which cause this levitation are superconducting materials.
28:40The concept of superconductivity is a material that has virtually no resistance to conducting electricity.
28:47And we can harness that property to produce very powerful magnetic fields.
28:51Unfortunately, most of the materials that are available to us today that have that property,
28:57only have that property at very, very cold temperatures.
29:00So we first have to cool those down to those very cold cryogenic temperatures
29:05before that material actually starts acting like a superconductor.
29:09That same material at room temperature does nothing.
29:12But suddenly you cool that material down to what its transition temperature is towards being a superconductor,
29:18and suddenly that material loses any resistance to electric current
29:24and can now become a very good magnetic levitator.
29:29Liquid helium is used in maglev trains to cool superconductive materials to within 30 degrees of absolute zero,
29:36the theoretical lowest temperature possible, where all vibration stops and no heat is generated.
29:41That's a technology which didn't exist until 30 or so years ago,
29:46and the development of that technology is still developing.
29:49The more interesting thing with superconducting materials, though,
29:53is to be able to get that same behavior at room temperature.
29:57Because if we could save the energy to cool these things and we could still access these properties,
30:02it will revolutionize not just how trains are moved,
30:05but where else we could actually employ some of these materials and their superconducting capacity.
30:12Maglev trains in the Chinese city Shanghai use electromagnetic suspension to stay levitated off the track.
30:19Electromagnetic suspension uses the attractive force between magnets
30:24located beneath the train, on its sides, and on the guideway.
30:28The train levitates above a steel rail while electromagnets attached to the train are oriented toward the rail from below.
30:35Electromagnets use feedback control to maintain the train at a constant distance from the track.
30:40Maglevs eliminate a key source of friction.
30:43There are no up and down jolts, which you get when you have wheels on steel.
30:48This is what a suspension is doing. It's basically, you're pushing down.
30:53And you go on a bump, right? You're going to bump.
30:57And what your suspension does is cancels the energy that is created by these bumps and non-conformities in your path.
31:09So for it to keep you suspended, there needs to be a force that is balancing it off.
31:14So balance force can come from electromagnetic, which is a current passing through a wire and a magnet.
31:20And it keeps you floating.
31:22Newer Maglev trains have been developed using powerful electrodynamic suspension,
31:27which allows for the train to stay higher off the track and travel faster.
31:31Maglev is definitely a game.
31:34I think it's just a precursor to massive things coming in the train sector especially.
31:40The Shanghai Maglev goes 430 km an hour, twice as fast as a conventional commuter train.
31:47It holds the title of fastest operating train in the world.
31:51At full speed from Pudong Airport to Longyang Road Station, it takes 7 minutes and 20 seconds to complete the 30 km journey.
31:59While Maglev technology is exciting and promising, very few are currently operating around the world.
32:05Many countries suspect they won't be adopting this new technology for decades.
32:09One of the biggest deterrents with Maglev trains is profitability.
32:13It is incredibly expensive to build, costing several times more than any conventional rail.
32:19Passenger trains are notorious for operating at a loss worldwide,
32:23which makes investing in brand new infrastructure and rail vehicles extremely unattractive.
32:28Currently, Maglevs are less than ideal for cargo transportation,
32:32due to the huge amount of energy needed to move heavy loads.
32:36Another major issue is scheduling.
32:38Having freight trains share Maglev infrastructure with passenger routes is a logistical nightmare.
32:44Transporting heavier loads with Maglev technology will most likely require a complete redesign of the system.
32:50One company is heralding their cutting-edge technology as a superior option to Maglev trains.
32:56The Canadian TransPod transportation system promises to use their infrastructure for both passengers and cargo in their Edmonton to Calgary corridor.
33:05In hours where passenger demand is high, the line will be full of commuter vehicles.
33:10During off-hours, cargo shipments will make use of the infrastructure.
33:15The goal is to keep the line running close to maximum capacity at all hours,
33:19driving profits in a way that passenger-only systems can't.
33:23A seamless connection to an international airport is the key to making this goal a reality.
33:29In Edmonton, cargo shipments will arrive at the Edmonton Airport Station by plane
33:34before being loaded up and shipped out on this ultra-high-speed system.
33:38TransPod is hoping a success in Alberta will make this futuristic transportation viable in even higher-density areas like Toronto.
33:47But not everyone and everything is comfortable travelling at such high speeds.
33:52Both the Maglev system and the TransPod system are forced to contend with the public perception around Maglev trains.
33:58While impressive, many fear the dangers of reaching such high speeds.
34:03In some controlled testing, we know that the Maglev train is able to reach speeds of 500 kilometres per hour.
34:09But in actual use cases with passengers, they're capped at about 430 kilometres per hour.
34:14In 2021, China set the bar even higher, revealing that their latest Maglev train is capable of a top speed of 600 kilometres an hour.
34:24Though it is not yet operational, the leader in Maglev technology is also said to be testing something called a super-Maglev train.
34:31They're trying to achieve speeds of 1,000 kilometres an hour or potentially more.
34:38To put this in perspective, the speed of sound in air is roughly about 1,200 kilometres an hour.
34:45Digest that for a minute.
34:47That at 1,000 kilometres an hour on a train, you will be approaching the speed of sound.
34:53At some point, Mach speeds shall be reached by trains as well. There's nothing stopping it.
34:58If we can reach it in air, we can reach it in trains because we'll still be in air.
35:04I mean, just that we are not that high, we're just a little high, but we're still moving through air.
35:08However, there's a lot of ethical concerns around whether this is actually safe.
35:13The slightest mistake at any of these speeds would be absolutely catastrophic.
35:17Major changes like the Maglev and its increase in speed, similar to something like autonomous self-driving cars,
35:23these are huge paradigm shifts in transportation and they warrant real public scrutiny.
35:29The battle to actually win over the public so that these technologies get adopted
35:33is a very big challenge for the makers of these pieces of transportation.
35:38With trains accelerating at nearly unimaginable speeds, adding new safety features became a critical focus
35:44and autonomous technology was seen as the ideal solution.
35:48I think what's remarkable is that the first development of these high-speed trains was in a country that is susceptible to earthquakes
35:54and they made that technology work safely despite the fact that they do routinely have earthquakes in Japan
36:01and it's not been a problem.
36:03I mean, the safety record for high-speed rail is incredibly good.
36:07The ability of the trains, for example, in the Shinkansen network to talk to each other
36:12and know where the other trains are is really critical because the trains are often quite close together,
36:17so it's a very safe, safe technology.
36:20When we think about implementing autonomous vehicles and autonomous vehicle technology,
36:24trains are really a perfect candidate.
36:26The great thing about tracks is that there are very few things that you can possibly interact with or crash into.
36:31It's still possible, it still requires a lot of testing and a lot of examination,
36:36but trains make for the perfect test candidates for autonomous vehicles.
36:41Look, no engineer.
36:45A successful run by remote control.
36:50When we talk about autonomous vehicles in general,
36:53we need to teach the vehicle to learn about the path and predict the action it needs to take to control the vehicle,
37:03stop it when necessary, take speed, or do whatever is required.
37:08For the trains, if an animal, a person, an object, someone comes to the road,
37:13then the train should be able to detect the object and brake ahead of time to prevent any type of injury,
37:20at the same time calculate the correct acceleration to make sure the passengers in the train are also protected.
37:28So some of this autonomy is regarding the image processing
37:33and using the velocity sensors and other types of sensors to achieve this goal.
37:39Automatic Train Operation, or ATO, describes any technology used to automate the operation of trains.
37:46This includes small features such as signals that were once performed by the rail staff.
37:51So there are less degrees of freedom for a train than, for example, a car.
37:56A train is sort of bound to the track and to the environment around that track,
38:01and people generally stay off the track.
38:04And if they have to do repairs, there are procedures in place to make sure that everyone knows that these repairs are happening.
38:10But as you're driving around on the road, people walk on roads, people do construction on roads.
38:15There's a lot of variables that vehicle automated systems have to factor in
38:20that wouldn't necessarily be a problem for train automated systems to consider.
38:25So the train automation problem is probably the problem that we'll fix first.
38:31When we think about more common cases of semi-autonomous trains that we have today,
38:36the features that are being controlled often relate to speed and the braking systems.
38:41We don't think of it as taking away any of the complexity of the human job,
38:45but rather it takes some of the more crucial elements
38:48and removes the error that could be associated with human decision making.
38:52So an automated system is perfectly capable of determining how fast it is going and how fast it should be going.
38:57Human error tends to play a major role in train derailments.
39:01For example, if a train is going too fast for a certain curve,
39:06all of a sudden it won't be able to navigate that curve,
39:09and its momentum will want to keep it going forward, and that'll cause the train to derail.
39:14If we can automate these decisions that humans are currently making,
39:18we can definitely increase the speed and safety of these trains.
39:22And so whenever we talk about autonomy, I think one of the things that everyone has in the back of their mind,
39:27but perhaps doesn't say explicitly, is that we are trying to remove human error.
39:32Unlike a human being, a machine isn't going to get distracted
39:36or isn't going to fall asleep at the wheel or anything like that.
39:41And so autonomy is always fantastic.
39:43Autonomous systems are only as good as the information they're programmed with.
39:47The more details about the objects and people in its feed, the more accurately it will work.
39:52Making automated train systems has become relatively common.
39:56We see these all the time in airports around the world, we see it in subways, because it's a closed system.
40:02Even in larger train systems, this is feasible.
40:05We can put geolocators on trains, we can monitor switches, we can monitor tracks, we can monitor speeds.
40:11We can literally automate the entire train system of the world.
40:16So that's a likely outcome in the long run around the world, is that trains will become more and more automated.
40:22As rail networks move towards total automation,
40:25there are four different classifications ranging from some automation to totally driverless trains.
40:31When we talk about autonomously controlled vehicles, there are sort of four levels that we classify them as.
40:37The first level, we have a few different functions that are being automated.
40:41Braking, speeds, things like that.
40:43In the case of a level four, this is a completely autonomous, not controlled by a human scenario.
40:49In the world today, we actually have a few cases of this,
40:51where some trains are performing their trips completely separate from human intervention.
40:56Autonomous trains now operate in over 40 cities, including Copenhagen, Paris, Singapore, Dubai and London.
41:04Autonomous train systems are actually very reliable,
41:07because you have the entire infrastructure of the train being connected by the track.
41:11So not only like other autonomous vehicles, we've got camera systems, we've got sensors on a particular car,
41:16you can actually know what is going to happen because you are connected to any other cars that are on the same track that you're on.
41:22This gives an autonomous train even more data than any other form of autonomous transportation.
41:27Trains that can see, think and decide for themselves are well on their way to becoming a reality.
41:33It's not just the technology itself that's exciting,
41:36it's also the enormous potential of autonomous systems that are transforming the way railways are run.
41:42The next major leap in public transit and train schedules is happening now.
41:47In 2020, the stakes got even higher when the world's first driverless bullet train entered into service in China.
41:54To ensure this amazing achievement is safe for riders,
41:57this train is run on a dedicated high-speed rail network spanning nearly 35,000 kilometers.
42:04I mean, high-speed rail is largely autonomous,
42:07but we always like to have humans there to make sure that things operate properly.
42:12The same goes for planes.
42:13I mean, autopilots on planes largely take the plane from one place to the other without the pilot being all that involved in that,
42:19but you always want to have a pilot on board when things go wrong.
42:22I think it will be a while before people are comfortable with a full level of automation.
42:28But I've been on subway trains in Europe that have no operators,
42:32and I suspect that high-speed rail could be one of those places where,
42:36at some point, we do without the train operator entirely and the whole train is operated remotely.
42:42Some of the limitations that we have right now is we cannot have multiple trains operating very near to each other on the same track
42:51because we have to maintain the safety distances.
42:55But having a fully automated train which provides or guarantees a crash-free operation,
43:03we can have much more trains using the same track.
43:08Automation in passenger trains is steadily increasing,
43:11but freight trains have remained resistant, offering unique challenges.
43:15There's an interesting trend that seems kind of counterintuitive to other forms of transportation,
43:19where, with trains, we've been able to embrace automated passenger trains,
43:24whereas automated passenger solutions for other industries isn't quite there yet.
43:29On the other side, we've automated the transportation system in shipping, for example,
43:34but we haven't done that yet in trains.
43:37So a lot of the cargo handling of trains is still very manual.
43:41It's still being controlled by people.
43:43The actual propulsion systems are still relying heavily on fossil fuels.
43:46They're not electrified tracks.
43:48It's becoming more and more common for older technology to be used for something very high value,
43:52which is the transportation of goods.
43:54Cargo trains are a little bit different than passenger trains.
43:58The problem with cargo trains is we really don't always have a good idea of how much mass is on our train.
44:03So we don't know how long we have to start braking before getting to a corner or coming to a stop.
44:10It's a very different situation.
44:12There's a lot more automation and a lot more controls that need to go into freight trains
44:17to make sure that they can operate autonomously.
44:21However, this is starting to happen.
44:23In Australia, the mining company Rio Tinto now has a fully automated train
44:28that brings materials from a remote site to a port where it can be unloaded.
44:32The system this train used was called the auto haul,
44:35and it was a series of cameras and sensors that were continuously monitoring the train as it went.
44:39There were no actual humans on board,
44:41and all the monitoring was being done from a central location 1,400 kilometres away.
44:45So we are starting to see the automation of freight trains.
44:48We're starting to understand what systems need to be in place.
44:51And automation of train systems is really something that is going to happen going forward.
44:56Even though the auto haul system is autonomous, the train still relies on fossil fuels to power it.
45:02Throughout the world, there still are many rail networks resistant to full electrification.
45:08Shipping industries face major costs and delays when switching from diesel to electric.
45:12Today, transport accounts for one-fifth of the global CO2 emissions.
45:17There's a lot of different reasons to stick with diesel trains over electrification.
45:23Electrification has a huge capital upfront cost.
45:26The other problem with electrification is if the power goes out, your trains don't go anywhere.
45:31In big systems with long distances, it's really hard to electrify.
45:35In smaller systems, closer proximity, it's easier to electrify.
45:39Transforming from a diesel engine to a maglev for a passenger train was massive.
45:45And there was a need for it because we can save time.
45:49We can spend more time with our families,
45:52spend more time with what we love to do rather than what we worked.
45:56Do we need goods to move faster at this point across the country?
46:00The answer is we don't need to move faster.
46:03Because you can run many more products at the same time.
46:07And if it takes one week to arrive, then send one every day, it'll arrive every day.
46:11So trains were basically made to move goods from a port.
46:16So going to a ship, and ships the slowest of all,
46:19so I really don't need to go supersonic speeds to go to a ship
46:23which is going to take this in the next three months to my destination.
46:26While freight trains are slow to electrify,
46:29some rail systems might bypass the whole electrification process altogether.
46:34A controversial yet intriguing new train design
46:37promises massive increases in speed without any rails at all.
46:41The Hyperloop is arguably the most ambitious and talked-about concept for a train of our time.
46:47The idea was propelled into the century by visionary entrepreneur and innovator Elon Musk in 2013,
46:54sparking global excitement.
46:56So one of the biggest benefits of the Hyperloop is it eliminates drag.
47:00The Hyperloop chamber, if you will, is void of air.
47:03It's near a vacuum.
47:05So as that train is hurling through the track at neck-breaking speeds,
47:09it doesn't have to deal with or put up with all that nasty drag it would have on it otherwise.
47:14When you think of moving an object through space,
47:17that object is encountering a lot of forces that are preventing it from moving.
47:21So whether it's the friction on the track, which we can eliminate by having it levitate,
47:26or whether it's the drag by it physically hitting air molecules as it's moving
47:31and you're trying to move those molecules out of the way in a more energy-favorable way,
47:36it's encountering all these things that are preventing it from moving fast.
47:41So if we can get rid of all those things, all those barriers,
47:44then we can make that train go extremely fast.
47:47If we can have it levitate and go through a large tube that's void of air,
47:52all of a sudden we've reduced or eliminated the friction between train wheels and the rolling resistance,
47:59and we've also eliminated the actual drag that it would otherwise see from being exposed to air.
48:05Ideally, the proper shape for anything that's going into a pneumatic-type tube
48:11would be almost a cylindrical-type shape that has curved ends.
48:15The idea behind that is the cylindrical-type shape fits very well within the actual cylinder of the tube,
48:21and then the rounded ends reduces the resistance as it moves through the tube.
48:25When the concept of the hyperloop was introduced,
48:28it was argued that use of this method of transportation
48:32would be able to get you from San Francisco to L.A. in a matter of 30 minutes.
48:38Just to put that into context, right now if you were to get in your car and you live in San Francisco
48:43and you wanted to drive to L.A., in the absence of traffic, that would take you about six and a half hours.
48:48One of the biggest engineering challenges facing hyperloop is that once a near vacuum is created inside the tube,
48:55the pressure inside the tube becomes significantly lower than the pressure outside.
49:00This creates a challenging situation for the structure of the tube,
49:04as it must withstand the external atmospheric pressure pushing inwards
49:08while also dealing with the low-pressure conditions inside the tube.
49:12Most materials we currently have are not strong enough to hold the exterior atmosphere, which is weighing them down.
49:19And yet, in small-scale models, some teams have successfully dealt with the problem.
49:25In 2021, SwissPod unveiled Limitless, Europe's first operational hyperloop test track in Lausanne, Switzerland.
49:33This reduced-scale facility is a vital platform for experimenting with new technologies.
49:39Its circular form simulates an infinite hyperloop test track,
49:43allowing the SwissPod team to evaluate the system's performance over long distances.
49:48Hyperloop technology is also being explored in neighboring Germany.
49:53Team TUM, from the Technical University of Munich, is a repeat winner of Elon Musk's SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition.
50:01In September 2020, TUM initiated the construction of a groundbreaking 24-meter-long test segment,
50:07marking a significant milestone in Europe's hyperloop development.
50:12The ultimate goal is to create a fully functional European hyperloop track
50:16to revolutionize travel across the continent from hours to minutes.
50:21The other challenge of the hyperloop is the energy required to void it of air.
50:26We don't think about it, but air has mass, and we have to move that mass from within the tube to somewhere outside the tube.
50:34So we have to push it out, and that requires energy.
50:37There are hopes that the ultimate high-tech train will be ready for use by 2050, as the technology continues to evolve.
50:44All these things are carrying human beings. The health and safety of these are super paramount.
50:51If a car takes about 10 to 12 years from a stage of,
50:57I want this car be made like this, according to the drawing, to actually making a car prototype.
51:05A plane takes about 20 years. Maglev took a long time. It didn't happen yesterday.
51:12A concept like hyperloop, which has just been on the paper, I'm sure it's going to take 25, 30 years for you to go sit in and travel.
51:20We need to take the time to make sure it's done right, it's done here to stay, and it's done sustainably with thought.
51:27With each technological stride, the horizon of train travel expands, igniting the imagination of visionary inventors.
51:35So it'll be a future that makes us even more interconnected than we currently are.
51:40Taking us on a journey where trains seamlessly weave together the fabric of our planet.
51:45A new era of global connectivity as rail systems become the catalyst for a world more intertwined than ever imagined.
52:15Transcribed by ESO. Translated by —