String transport

String Transport (also known as "SkyWay", Yunitskiy String Transport and Rail Sky Way) is a concept of an elevated light rail transportation system using prestressed rails with prestressed cables ("strings") and concrete inside them. It is designed for both freight and passenger services and has two main types of track structure and rolling stock — standard and suspended. The Bank of Lithuania and FSMA have issued scam warnings about the scheme and accused the promoters of not complying with legal requirements when seeking investment.

History

Theoretical foundations and models

The project was conceived by Belarussian engineer and inventor Anatoly Yunitskiy from the beginning of the 1980s. The first 1/10 scale models of track structure and rolling stock were constructed in 1990-s. Different models were built either with one or two strings. The dynamic and wind behaviour was tested by using a single-string 1/10 scale model in 2006-2007.

In 2016 the Expert Council under the Russian Ministry of Transport evaluated the SkyWay string technology and called it "innovative but only in theory". There were no any information about the result of this acknowledged and/or any Government Purchases or contracts with SkyWay.

First samples of urban railcar U4-210 and personal light railcar U4-621 were revealed at an international railway exhibition Innotrans 2016 in September 2016.

Test sites

Experimental test site in Ozyory

The first full-scaled string rail test track was constructed in Russian town Ozyory (Moscow Oblast, Russia) in 2001. This test track had tube rails supported with a wire rope and spreaders, unlike the monolithic string as proposed now. The length of this test track was about 150 meters. Due to lack of funding the inventors did not produce any railcars for this test track, but used a modified truck ZiL-131 with steel wheels instead of normal road wheels. Later this test site was abandoned and deconstructed.

A prototype test site with three test tracks (light rail, cargo rail and high-speed urban rail), is currently being built in the town of Maryina Horka, Belarus since 2015 and is due for completion in 2018.

Unrealized projects

In 2007 and 2008 the pilot string railway lines was planned to built in some Russian cities. But specialists of Moscow State University of Railway Engineering gave a negative assessment of the project and it was not implemented.

In 2010, it was planned to build a test site in Australia, but the project was not implemented because of a quarrel between Yunitskiy and his business partners.

Suspected financial irregularities

Lithuania

In 2014 the company planned to built its first test site in Lithuania, but this project was cancelled in the end of 2014 due to suspicions of financial frauds from the Bank of Lithuania, which warned investors that unidentified individuals invited Lithuanian residents to invest in "next-generation string transport" by acquiring on-line shares of the private limited company without a prospectus approved by a competent authority. Lithuanian Bank’s Supervision Department announced that having acknowledged there aren’t signs of a financial pyramid scheme in the proposed business.

On May 26, 2017, the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor's Office decided to stop the pre-trial investigation aimed at revealing signs of illegal financial activity in the work of the organizations created by Anatoly Yunitsky in Lithuania. The decision of the Executive body recognized that no evidence confirming suspicions in unfair practices of the management of companies that intended to create a demonstration and certification center of string transport on the territory of Lithuania, had been collected during the investigation. All applied temporary restrictions of the ownership rights to the funds, securities and other property on the accounts of these organizations have been removed.

Belgium

In September 2017, the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) issued a warning concerning Skyway Capital who were offering investment to the public without a prospectus approved by the FSMA, as required by Belgian law. The FSMA further stated that "the scheme proposed by SkyWay Capital exhibits the characteristics of a pyramid scheme."

Other countries

In 2018, the authorities of New Zealand, Germany and Greece issued an official warning about investing money in SkyWay, specifying that the company had no license to offer investments in the country.

Dharamshala project

In May 2017 Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Himachal Pradesh government with Sky Way Technology Corporation. Himachal Pradesh Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma said the facility would be started in the next three years.

In July 2017 the Economic Times reported that the project ran into controversy when doubts were raised over the credential of Belarus-based Skyway Technologies along with concerns over the suitability of the means of transport for the region. The congress government was criticised for "the decision to sign a memorandum of understanding with a company with no operational projects anywhere in the world" and doubts were raised over the safety and viability of the project.

Technical

Track structure

The track structure design is based upon the use of strings built with high-tensioned steel wires inserted into a concrete/resin core and enveloped within a steel shell.

It differs from traditional cable ropeways by using a perfectly flat rolling way to limit the wear, rolling resistance and noise. The functions dedicated to rope tension and rolling way are handled by separate parts. Narrow span intervals (~50m) coupled with tension much higher than common ropeway allow for low sag, permitting high speed operation.

The string attachments are fixed and there is no tensioning system. The steel thermal expansion over the seasons is absorbed by the modification of the tension stress in the string. As such there are no junction gaps in the rail except for switches, which are built similarly to railway switches. According to inventors, the system can utilize the most direct possible route, but it is possible to create curves by using intermediate supports which locally replace the string with steel structures.

Fatigue handling of the rail, which is an integral part of the string is being studied. As for pre- or post-tensioned beams mixing steel and concrete, fatigue studies are also being carried out. The designer proposes low overall fatigue, considering that the variation of the string tension due to vehicle weight is relatively low.

Rolling stock

Experimental suspended monorail using string cables in Maryina Horka, Belarus. Tests of first personal light railcar U4-621

String rail transport uses special light-weight railcars and multiple units with traction motors for both passenger and freight transportation. Freight transport also uses freight wagons without motors hauled with locomotives or traction rope. All rolling stock have individual suspension for each wheel with side anti-derailment small wheels like a monorail rolling stock.

String rail vehicles have commercial names "unibus" (universal railbus), "unicar", "unitruck" and "unibike" by analogy with conventional transport, where "uni-" means "unification". Creation of rolling stock for string railways is conducted by SkyWay Companies Group. It carries out design and development of the following types of string transport:

• high-speed rail (standard);
• urban rail (standard or suspended);
• cargo rail (standard or suspended, using freight railcars, locomotives with trains or wagons with traction rope);
• personal light rail (suspended).

Safety and evaluation

An earlier prototype of String transport was tested in Russia. This was subsequently dropped after an assessment by the State Railways University in Moscow in 2008 found that the project was "not viable and unsafe". According to the assessment, string rail technology is filled with a "large number of system defects and (is) almost unrealistic because it doesn’t provide an even path for the traffic". The report also quoted that "Passengers are at altitude from the ground level. Destruction of any string leads to deaths. The system is associated with great risk". Later, in 2017, the State Railways University in Moscow made another conclusion, which stated that “if the issues of rigidity, reliability, safety and maintainability are properly addressed, this technology can be implemented”, and also “the string rail transport technology is innovative and is of undoubted interest for science, engineering and experimental research."

In December 2017 there was a collision of the SkyWay rolling stock with a backhoe loader as a result of which three employees of the SkyWay project organization CJSC String Technologies were injured. The driver of the loader was taken to the intensive care unit.

See also

• Monorail
• SkyTran

External links

• Anatoly Yunitskiy official web-site
• Gizmag article
• Official website of SkyWay group of companies
• SkyWay EcoTechnoPark

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