In Pics: World's first Dual Mode Vehicle (DMV) debuts, can run both on road and rail
The DMV can carry up to 21 passengers and runs at a speed of 60 km/h (37 mph) on rail tracks and can go as fast as around 100 km/h (62 mph) on public roads, Asa Coast Railway said.
The world's first dual-mode vehicle that can run equally on road and rail, had made its public debut in the town of Kaiyo in Japan's Tokushima prefecture. The DMV looks like a minibus and runs on normal rubber tyres on the road, but when it arrives at an interchange, steel wheels descend from the vehicle's underbelly onto the rail track, effectively turning it into a train carriage. The train wheels lift the front tyres off the track while the rear wheels stay down to propel the DMV onto the railway. The DMV can carry up to 21 passengers and runs at a speed of 60 km/h (37 mph) on rail tracks and can go as fast as around 100 km/h (62 mph) on public roads, Asa Coast Railway said.