More Electroexecution

This might be a little more gut reaction than normal but why in the heck would you get rid of trolley buses in Seattle? Honestly when everyone else is looking for ways to get on renewable energy and figure out ways to lower carbon footprints, you're going to really add more ghgs to save a little coin? When do we start pricing carbon so that these actually make Metro money?

This is a case where the bean counters are counting the wrong beans. The metrics they used are out of touch with what's going on in the world today and the whole host of externalities that bean counters are not generally meant to measure till they are forced to. I can tell you that the dismantling of the Milwaukee Road was the dumbest thing right before an oil crisis. He who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it. I find it interesting that these studies keep coming out decade after decade against electric transport on cost or other issues. Edison's battery for cars seemed to be taken out this way, the Milwaukee Road got taken out this way, and now the Seattle Trolley buses might get taken out this way. I want to see a diesel vs. trolley bus test up a hill. Stop the insanity.

Setting the Table for a Buffet

Perhaps a knowledgeable and keen businessman such as Warren Buffet is the key to restoring the railroads to prominence in this country. It would be interesting to see if such a large buy in BNSF is going to give others a small push to start thinking about passenger rail as a buy situation as well. One of the things that I think he will benefit from are the billions of dollars that will go into rail lines between cities for high speed rail. Because the government is pushing harder for HSR than anything else, and so far it's a popular program, he knows that if he plays correctly within the confines of the current government parameters, the sky is the limit. Who knows, perhaps he'll be on track to follow in Vanderbilt's footsteps.

Monday Night Notes

Have you ever had a picnic on the grass on a major bridge?
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Officials in India are calling for high rises. I'm surprised they didn't go up before.
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Businesses in the UK are starting to use carshare companies instead of keeping their own fleets.
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Integrating BRT with a Metro should be a no brainer.
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I can see why folks in East LA wanted a subway. Its a dense area and it would have been nice. But whining about it and getting upset right before it opens seems a bit lame to me.
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Lots of regulation of safety on commuter rail are causing a strain.

Trains Vs Trucks?

I think this is a perfect example of single mode network thinking. Yes the rail lines don't go to the back of the Best Buy but they shouldn't. The rail lines do certain jobs well and trucks do other jobs well. Why not work together?

In transit, my favorite example is the CityCargo tram. Yes it's a tram that delivers cargo, but it has little electric trucks to deliver directly to the door to merchants in Amsterdam. It only works with both modes.

Amtrak Names New Chief

Got the news today that Amtrak named a new CEO, Joseph Boardman. It seems like he has rail experience but much of it recently has been with the Federal Railroad Administration. They haven't been too accommodating or friendly to passenger rail lately, especially light rail lines that run next to freight. They have also been averse to DMU commuter lines such as in Austin.

Much has been written about this and I'll refer you to this article by Light Rail Now! on the FRA's past and current issues with passenger rail. All first impressions lead me to believe that Boardman will be good, but we'll know when we get there. Perhaps the Kerry bill will push folks forward as well.

Honda Shipping 81% Rail

Interesting. Why don't more car companies ship this high a percentage by rail?

Product Distribution

* An industry-high 81% of automobile were shipped by rail, the most fuel-efficient means of product transportation.

* CO2 emissions from automobile transport were reduced by 5,493 metric tons though the use of more fuel-efficient Auto-Max rail cars.

Turn of the Century

Ever wondered where the population centers were at the turn of the century after the railroads had taken hold? Well here's your map. Very cool.

H/T Mike Lydon

Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries

A Sad Day in LA

Just saw the news about the LA Metrolink crash. Very sad and when I saw it I'll admit I was angry. I saw the pictures on the cover of the NY Times and looked at the track, it was single track. Single track that could have been double track. Should have been double, and there have been NIMBY's that opposed it. But this was someone's mistake on one of the trains. I just wish it didn't happen. Anyone know what's up with the increase in crashes lately?

Share the Tracks

An interesting proposal in Portland that would be pretty inexpensive introduction of Commuter Rail:

A representative for Portland & Western Railroad approached local leaders about the idea this summer. Larry Harvey, a senior consultant with PacWest Communications, said the railroad's line just north of Oregon 8 is deteriorating.

Without an upgrade, it will no longer be able serve the five or so companies now using it for freight, he said, forcing them to relocate or start contracting with truck companies.

"Portland and Western said, 'Gee, if we committed to only running freight on that line between midnight and 4 a.m., then passenger cars could run between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.," Harvey said.

The railroad has approached local governments about cooperating to find funding for what Portland & Western estimates would be a $30 million project, in 2008 dollars.

They will have to deal with the FRA which means they wouldn't be able to use lightweight vehicles. It is a rather short route and I wonder if they should just run the line all the way to Beaverton catching a lot of the commercial corridor left unserved by the light rail line (represented by the red extension to the yellow).

The Hostmen

I've been reading Edwin Black's Internal Combustion and it's interesting to read about Kings and their forests of wood fuel (Robin Hood is said to be about the hero who fought over wood) and the hostmen of industrial England who held so much power in coal, the government couldn't stymie them. What is interesting is that the railroad is what broke their monopoly by opening up more places rich with coal but without a river to run it down. Today we have a similar monopoly with oil rich countries and a big fight over that energy. Perhaps we are on the cusp of another shift because of oils location and environmental ills. Perhaps it is the railroad that will bring it back.

The Indian Electric

It's worth mentioning again Alan Drake's (and others) call for electrification of the freight railroads in the United States. Here's another area though where we are being beaten by other countries. This time its India.

Mumbai: In one of the largest deals of its kind, India will buy 660 electric railway engines worth an estimated €3.5 billion (about Rs23,835 crore).

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The engines would be deployed on the dedicated rail freight corrridors India is building, besides hauling cargo on the common rail network. India’s 2,700km-long dedicated freight corridor project was conceived in 2005 as a way to ease traffic on some of the country’s busiest freight routes running through 12 states. The corridor will connect New Delhi in the north to Mumbai in the west and Kolkata in the east. These routes account for 60% of the freight transported by the railways, which had initially estimated the project to cost around Rs28,000 crore.

What would the benefits of electrification and a shift of freight to electric rail be? Well Alan says a 6.3% reduction in fuel usage in the United States. With more electric transit and biking incentives it could possibly be even better.

Transport Electrification

There is a lot of talk here of passenger rail but little discussion of freight. I can't say that I know about the business that much but I wanted to share a few ideas that I had seen that look promising.

The first is a plan thought up by Bruce McFadden over at Docudharma. His idea is to create a backbone energy corridor along freight lines to transport stranded wind.

It should, I hope, be clear that much of the best resource is in areas that do not have the highest electricity consumption. And at the same time, that is a lot of the terrain that the transcontinental freight rail must traverse to get where its going. And, at the same time, we desperately need to get the main freight rail trunk lines electrified, by hook or by crook. Ergo, I got a grossly oversimplified policy proposal to present.

• The Federal Government invests in publicly owned infrastructure to electrify the main railroad
• In return, the owners of the right of way cede use of the right of way above the part that they need to public use, together with access to the ground level right of way for support structures
• That right of way is used to establish long distance High Voltage DC trunk lines to bring sustainable energy from the places that have it to places the need it
• In areas where there is a commercial wind resource, the usage rights above those trunk lines are available to be leased out for wind farm operators, with the lease payments rolled back into the funding for the program

Some answers to some challenges to the proposal, after the fold.

Another of interest is a plan to reduce energy consumption in 10 years through transport electrification, mostly by electrifying the freight lines by granting property tax waivers for railroads that electrify. It also includes more rail transit and trolleybuses. Alan Drake discusses that plan over at Light Rail Now! I'm not sure how feasible it is, but its an interesting idea to ponder.

It's Not Just People, It's Freight Too!!

Over at Trans Sleuth, Adron discusses the increase in passengers and freight trains in America...

Trucks keep ratcheting up the prices because of labor and fuel and wanting to impose 3 tractor trailer units per truck. Meanwhile BNSF is increasing the train length by the equivalent of almost 240 trucks! Come on America, get this crap straight!! Move it to the rails, get the intermodal really cooking, and get those centers to truly be distribution points! Rock on BNSF, Congrats on a successful 10,000 ft. train move!

This is rather amazing and it shows the efficiency of rail over rubber tired alternatives. I wonder how much benefit we would get from electrifying just this one route which has 10,000 ft trains and using alternative energy. There should be a national study to look at the environmental benefits of such a move as well as a cost-benefit ratio. Has this already been done? Some cold hard numbers always help.