Quote:
Originally Posted by SlidellWx
We have such a pitiful rail network here in the United States. So many major cities with little to no rail service at all. I would give my left arm and leg to have a rail system comparable to that in Europe. The list of unserved or underserved routes would take up an entire page or more when it comes to the US rail network. Investment in a true high speed rail system would absolutely spur ridership given the less than pleasant experience flying has become for many. I'm not very optimistic on that occurring, unfortunately. The Swiss just finished building a 57 km tunnel through the Alps to support HSR and freight rail last year. Sad to say, but that's too much to ask from our state and federal govt. here in the USA.
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America has a great rail system when it comes to freight. Every major city in the USA has mainline freight services. I'll admit passenger services aren't as good.
America moves 910.8 billion ton-miles by rail every year, Europe moves 36.8 billion tkm.
Total inland freight transport in the EU-28 was estimated to be just over 2 200 billion tonne-kilometres (tkm) in 2014. The share of EU-28 inland freight that was transported by road (74.9 %) was more than four times as high as the share transported by rail (18.4 %), while the remainder (6.7 %) of the freight transported in the EU-28 in 2014 was carried along inland waterways.
Math = 0.184 x 200 billion tkm = 36.8 billion tkm.
Within the U.S. railroads carry 39.9% of freight by ton-mile, followed by trucks (33.4%), oil pipelines (14.3%), barges (12%) and air (0.3%).
Total freight was 2,283 billion ton-miles. They originated 39.53 million carloads (averaging 63 tons each), the average haul was 917 miles.
Math = 39.53 million x 63 tons x 917 miles = 2,283 billion ton-miles
Math = 0.399 x 2,283 billion ton-miles = 910.9 billion ton-miles.
Sources of data
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_freight_transport
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statist...ort_statistics
What I found interesting in the data was the
average distance railroads moved freight, 913 miles (1469 km). To put that into perspective, 1469 km is the distance from London to Warsaw (1453 km). London to Budapest is 1459 km, London to Bratislava is 1292 km, and London to Prague is 1036 km.
Yes, the average distance freight railroads moves goods in America would take you from western to eastern Europe.
As for the recent rail tunnel opening in Switzerland, check out who actually pays for it. Believe it or not, it is not the Swiss.
From
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottha...unnel#Politics
21 May 2000, Bilateral EU Agreements / 40-tonne Trucks / Heavy Traffic Fee : As part of a whole package of several bilateral agreements with the EU the Swiss also accepted by 67.2% yes votes (declined by 2 cantons, turnout 48.3%) the shift of an upper limit for trucks from 28 tonnes to 40 tonnes, but at the same time the EU agreed to a new heavy-traffic fee, which will also be used to finance the NRLA (New Railway Link through the Alps).
It's amazing what you can afford to build when you find someone else to pay for it.
FYI, a typical 28 tonne lorry and a 40 tonne lorry drawings
3 axels, not tandem
https://gpslogistics.co.uk/fleet-08-26-ton-lorry/
5 axels, not tandem
https://gpslogistics.co.uk/fleet-09-40-ton-arctic/