Designing RUF Stations - An Initial Approach
by J.B. Schneider
July, 1997
An important part of an overall assessment of the RUF concept is the issue of station location and design. What follows is an initial attempt at addressing some of the questions that arise when thinking about the physical design of a RUF station. This discussion is limited to a single station located on a two-way RUF rail facility. It provides for both access and egress in one direction. It is assumed that there would be both regular and MaxiRUF vehicles operating on the rail, that some vehicles would be privately owned while others are public (all MaxiRUF vehicles are assumed to be public). Some vehicles would carry people, others goods. Some would be occupied, others would be empty. An assumed maximum train size for regular RUFs is about 10 vehicles and is 5 for MaxiRUFs.
This station was designed with respect to several design objectives. It has been drawn to scale but all of the elements have not been worked out in detail - e.g. curve radii and transition distances. An overview drawing is provided as are three zoomed views of the overview drawing, left side, center and right side. The annotations on these drawings can provide some additional details of the functional elements of this station design.
Some Design Objectives
1. Separate vehicles and pedestrians to the maximum extent possible, grade-separate when possible to maximize safety within the station.
2. Give MaxiRUFs the best locations and priority treatment whenever possible.
3. Provide large queuing/parking/storage areas to insure that jam-ups will never occur in stations.
4. Provide transfer facilities for connecting modes (e.g. taxis, buses, trams, trains, bicycle, PRT, etc.)
5. Minimize the number of at grade crossing paths in the station area.
6. Minimize the land area required by the station.
7. Insure that the adjacent street system had adequate capacity to handle access/egress vehicular movements and includes signalization that can be controlled by the RUF station area control system.
8. Provide vehicle inspection and limited maintenance/repair capabilities at the station.
9. Provide a full range of facilities for station patrons (e.g. eating, drinking, washrooms, retail, information, security, etc.)
10. Provide for functional integration with adjacent (jointly-developed in some cases) residential/non-residential public and private developments.
Some Functional Requirements
These design requirements are intended to describe the total functionality that should be provided by a RUF station located adjacent to or near a major diversified center having considerable density. It provides for a substantial amount of on-site parking (on the surface as well as in circular parking structures), room for vehicle queues - arriving and departing, access routes, pathways and waiting areas for pedestrians and transfer facilities for buses and taxis. Functional requirements are as follows:
A. Arrivals (vehicles coming in from mainline RUF rail)
- 1. Continue through without stopping
- 2. MaxiRUF (public, passengers on board)
- - - a. Unload - to parking
- - - b. Unload - load- return to mainline
- 3. MaxiRUF (private or public, driver and goods on board)
- - - a. Route to street
- - - b. Route to parking or goods movement transfer facility
- 4. RUF (public)
- - - a. Unload - send empty to short-term parking under system control- passengers continue on foot
- - - b. Unload - send empty to long-term parking under system control - passengers continue on foot
- - - c. Unload - send empty back to mainline - passengers continue on foot
- - - d. Unload - load - send occupied back to mainline
- - - e. Do not unload - send to street system - manual control to destination
- 5. RUF (private)
- - - a. Unload - send empty under system control to short-term parking
- - - b. Unload - send empty under system control to another destination (e.g private parking space)
- - - c. Route to street system - manual control to destination
B. Departures (vehicles leaving station to return to mainline RUF rail)
- 1. Vehicles enter station from street system
- - - a. MaxiRUF (public) - fully loaded, route direct to mainline
- - - b. MaxiRUF (public) - empty or partial load, route to loading area, then direct to mainline
- - - c. RUF (private) - empty to loading area - direct to mainline
- - - d. RUF (private) - loaded - direct to mainline
- - - e. RUF (public, rental) - empty - to loading berth - direct to mainline
- - - f. RUF (public, rental) - loaded - direct to mainline
- 2. Vehicles enter station from off-site parking areas
- - - a. MaxiRUF (public) - fully loaded, route direct to mainline
- - - b. MaxiRUF (public) - empty or partial load, route to loading area, then direct to mainline
- - - c. RUF (private) - empty to loading area - direct to mainline
- - - d. RUF (private) - loaded - direct to mainline
- - - e. RUF (public, rental) - empty - to loading berth - direct to mainline
- - - f. RUF (public, rental) - loaded - direct to mainline
- 3. Walk-in patrons
- - - a. Walk-in patrons - to MaxiRUF loading berths - direct to mainline
- - - b. Walk-in patrons - to RUF loading berths - direct to mainline
This station design is perhaps more extensive that would be necessary for the RUF technology in many cases. However, a station at the intersection of three or more RUF links could well be larger and more complex. A similar design would probably be needed for major stations serving the needs of the other 10 dual-mode technology concepts described at the ITT website .
Last modified: March 06, 2004
