Double Decker BladeRunner Rides Roads AND Rails

There's hybrids...and then there's hybrids. And while this isn't the first time we've seen buses that can ride on train tracks (two years ago we wrote about these in Japan) this is definitely the coolest concept we've seen.

The Blade Runner (titles can't be copyrighted BTW) looks a bit like a semi-truck...a semi-truck built by a super-secret black-ops military operation that is. It was in fact designed by a British design company (Silvertip Design.) The bus itself is pretty cool, looking like a quite comfortable way to transport a LOT of people. If they could build some TVs into the headrests and give me plenty of headroom, I might actually consider the bus for long-term transit.

But that's only half of the coolness of the Blade Runner. The most exciting possibility is that Silvertip hopes they've found a way to quickly and simply drive the bus onto some train tracks, and then have it become a train. The advantage, of course, being that trains are far more efficient than buses, but can't necessarily get to all the same places that buses can.

This would probably be an excellent solution for commuter mass transit systems, but significantly less so for long-distance travel since the world's long-distance rail systems are already logistical nightmares. After adding the small trains to the mix only a super-intelligent, nation-wide, all-powerful computer could keep it all straight. Of course...then it would probably get angry that its funding wasn't increased and decide to blow up congress...I just don't think we're ready for that.

Via AutoBlogGreen