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
It’s not always worth it.
A lot of the time, any meaningful amount of height isn’t worth it considering how long that hill would need to be. Trains can only ascend very gentle grades, so raising the station by a few feet may mean you need to create a hill that’s a mile long. What do you do for all the level crossings and other infrastructure between the start and end of the hill? And what about trains that don’t stop at that station?
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