Trains (whether its a subway/tube or a regular locomotive) travel very quick, and when approaching a station, they need to slow down to a stop.
Why not have the station be built slightly elevated from the tracks? so as the train approaches, it has to climb an upward slope (and therefore trade kinetic energy for potential energy)?
And then when it leaves the station, it can more quickly accelerate and gain up to its target speed? Wouldn’t this be more efficient?
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In: Engineering
This is done, for instance on the Victoria line on the London Underground. It’s only really practical in bored tunnels where it doesn’t need any extra earthworks. The other issue is that if you change the location of stations on the line this can work against you; it really reduced your flexibility. In the case of the Victoria line there is a very low likelihood of moving stations or adding them due to the expense of tunnelling and the fact the line has very regular spacing. Trains can only go up very shallow slopes, so even if this is happenning, it wouldn’t be perceptible at the station.
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