"What about using the restroom?" Suddenly, as Elder Chen was explaining, a parent couldn't help but raise their hand and ask.
"That's simple, this..." Elder Chen stopped mid-sentence, then looked at the staff members beside him and said, "You explain, what about using the restroom?"
"Ah!" The staff member was stunned. After all this fuss, they didn't say anything.
"You?"
"Elder Chen, I don't know."
"Then you!"
"Elder Chen, no one told me!"
"Wait, you haven't even considered the issue of restrooms, have you?" the parent couldn't help but ask.
"Ahem, this issue has definitely been considered, but everything is still in the research and development stage, so it's very natural that we haven't come up with a unified solution!" Elder Chen coughed and said, "Besides, I don't think restrooms are very necessary. After all, at the speed of the vacuum high-speed train, it only takes two hours to travel from the southernmost to the northernmost border. In that case, if you can just bear with it, it will pass very quickly."
"Our train focuses on speed, so some of the passenger experience naturally has to be sacrificed!" Elder Chen explained.
"But the passenger experience is being sacrificed too much. For a two-hour journey, you have to remain fixed in this narrow space, with almost no room to move, and you can't stand up. Wouldn't maintaining this posture be very tiring?" another parent said.
"No, our chairs have undergone rigorous engineering mechanics design, and the chairs can also recline, making people almost in a supine state. How could you feel tired then? And two hours is the longest distance. Under normal circumstances, it only takes ten minutes from the capital to Shanghai. It's just ten minutes, why would you need to move around?" Elder Chen said impatiently.
"But why can't it be more spacious? Why can't there be side-by-side seats? Families often travel by train together, and at such times, we definitely want to sit together as a family, able to see each other. Instead of this front-and-back arrangement, where we can't even see each other."
"Moreover, if we bring children, and the children need our help? If we can't get to our children in time, it would be too unsettling!" another parent said.
"..." Elder Chen opened his mouth, but didn't know how to answer these questions, until Huang He, standing beside him, laughed and said, "Esteemed parents, thank you very much for your suggestions. First, I want to clarify that everything you see here is a non-official product, merely a test item produced for experimentation and to explore the most perfect solution!"
"Moreover, this prototype vehicle is mainly for operation, aiming to run safely and freely within the vacuum tube. The passenger user experience has not been fully considered yet; this is just a very rough prototype."
"In fact, if you had watched the CG short film released by our company three years ago, you would find that there have already been significant changes from the vacuum train envisioned in the CG short film."
"In our design, the vacuum train is actually a carriage with three rows of seats, similar in width to ordinary subway trains. However, during our research and development, we discovered that a vacuum train of such width requires an even more astonishing vacuum tube width, and the technical requirements are also much greater."
"And if we make a change and reduce the diameter of the originally designed vacuum tube by 1/3, then the manufacturing cost of the entire vacuum high-speed train tube and train will be directly reduced to about 1/10 of the previous cost! This will also allow the ticket price of the vacuum high-speed train to be reduced by more than half, and the payback period will be greatly advanced."
"Secondly, if the tube is reduced in size, the safety of the tube itself will also be greatly improved. With the same wall thickness, the current small vacuum tube can withstand pressure 7 times greater than the previously designed large tube."
"We have conducted tests, and the previously designed large tubes would deform severely in case of a vehicle collision, and in the worst case, the tube would directly leak air, leading to the collapse of the entire vacuum tube."
"If a vacuum high-speed train happens to pass within a 10-kilometer radius, the entire vacuum high-speed train will face the danger of destruction and death, with a passenger fatality rate as high as 2.6%!"
"But with the current small vacuum tube, even a heavy-duty truck colliding directly will only cause the tube to bend by no more than 15 degrees, and it will never cause the tube to leak or rupture."
"At the same time, we have also conducted tests in other aspects and found that any bullet-type firearms can cause no damage to the tube. Direct impact from weapons like grenade launchers and infantry cannons may only cause minor deformation. In fact, we have also tested small air-to-ground missiles, sea-to-ground missiles, and ground-to-ground missiles with weapon mounts."
"All small missiles directly hitting the tube only cause deformation, and in very rare cases, breakage. If they do not hit directly, they cause almost no damage to the entire tube."
"As for medium- and long-range ballistic missiles, direct hits will indeed cause damage that the tube cannot withstand. However, as long as the tube is not hit directly, it will not pose a fatal threat to the tube, and the tube can still effectively provide protection."
"In fact, because the diameter of the tube has been reduced by 1/3, the probability of being accurately hit by enemy guided weapons is also reduced by more than 80%."
"In addition, we have also tested large-scale natural disasters and found that unless there are severe seismic disasters that cause significant displacement of the land where the fixed pipeline is located, tearing the pipeline apart, or if there are large mudslides that impact and bend the pipeline. Except for these two relatively severe natural disasters, other disasters such as floods and fires cannot damage the pipeline at all!"
"In summary, we believe that by reducing the size of the pipeline, we can avoid more than 90% of safety crisis events. This will increase the safety probability of vacuum high-speed pipelines from the original crisis probability of 98.32% per 100 kilometers within ten years to 99.788% per 100 kilometers."
"This means that if we build 1 million kilometers of new vacuum high-speed pipelines, there will only be about 22 potentially life-threatening crisis accidents in 10 years, which is more than three times the safety of current railways."
"This is why we must make the vacuum high-speed train so narrow, only able to accommodate one person to ride. It is mainly for safety considerations. Otherwise, no one wants to travel in a vacuum high-speed train with constant anxiety!" Huang He said with a smile.
"Then this is indeed necessary!" Hearing Huang He's explanation, everyone present was intelligent and naturally understood that Huang He was speaking the hard truth. For safety and economic reasons, sacrificing some comfort is indeed irreproachable.
"Of course, the passenger experience also needs to be considered, as this will be our main mode of transportation in the future!" Huang He smiled, and changed the subject, "So we will also make corresponding improvements to the functions related to passenger experience!"
"First is the issue of restrooms. It is indeed very difficult and troublesome to move around in a vacuum train. Therefore, we plan to further modify the chairs to become seats with a portable urination function."
"This function is actually very simple. It only requires a urine导尿 tube to be placed under the seat, and a导尿 opening to be installed on the left side. Then, it can be gently attached or adhered. There are already very mature related products in the world, so this is not a problem."
"We only need to install a separate curtain for each seat to block the front and back view!"
"As for defecation, I'm afraid we can only wait. Depending on the destination of the high-speed train, there will definitely be stops in between to transfer vacuum tracks. During this time, some time can be provided to deal with defecation. If that's really not possible, you can ask our cabin crew for antidiarrheal pills. This medicine can temporarily relieve that kind of discomfort, but unless it is absolutely necessary, it is not recommended to use it."
"..." The parents felt the atmosphere was a bit strange when they heard Huang He's sincere explanation about the restrooms.
"As for the riding experience, we will definitely design the best ergonomic seats to meet the needs of long sitting. Additionally, according to the design, to ensure the safety of people during the high-speed operation of the train, all seats will be reclined to a 45-degree angle with the ground, so people will almost be lying on the chairs, which is almost no different from sleeping!"
"At the same time, to further improve the riding experience, we also plan to install small televisions and video-on-demand equipment in the vehicle. Users can lie on the chairs and watch TV, further reducing the fatigue and boredom brought by long-distance travel!"
"In fact, we also plan to install a Wi-Fi system in the vacuum tube. Because the inside of the tube is an absolute vacuum environment, the Wi-Fi signal will be exceptionally good. One Wi-Fi device can cover a range of 10 kilometers, allowing users to experience a good network environment even in a high-speed train."
"In short, as a completely new product and mode of transportation, the vacuum high-speed train will definitely improve its various capabilities and designs through continuous practice. In the future, we also look forward to some excellent designers solving the current pain points of the train for us. Thank you all for your support!" Huang He's speech instantly triggered a round of applause from the audience.
And with the applause, the two ends of the vacuum high-speed train were completely locked, and a staff member shouted loudly, "Train preparation complete, commencing startup procedure!"
Finally, this vacuum high-speed train was about to start moving.