Transportation system within a starship. The turbolift system consists of a network of turboshafts and the single turbolift cars. A turbolift is driven by linear motors. Acceleration up to 10m/s^2 is possible and can be partially compensated for the passengers by damping fields within the car.

The turbolift is a nice example for real world technology adapted for Star Trek. Linear motors have actually been developed for transportation purposes, for instance in the German Transrapid (see their homepage). Fundamentally, such a motor works in a similar way as a conventional cylindrical electric motor, where a rotor is located inside a stator. The linear motor has the stator unrolled, and the rotor can be replaced by a simple magnet in the car that is free to move along the stator in the roadway. Propulsion is achieved by powering the stator so as to generate a traveling field.