TUK020 wrote:odysseus2000 wrote:ap8889 wrote:There is a compelling counter-argument: As we enter an energy constrained future, the moat of the railroads will be enhanced. Rail is much more energy-efficient than trucking, and physics ultimately trumps all.
Energy constrained? That was the thesis of peak oil in the 1970's.
Since then we have wirked out how to use renewable power with the uk at 30% and rising.
The advent of solar, wind, wave with storage gives us more practical power than we have ever had.
Railways may be energy efficient, but what matters to most of us is convenience, speed of delivery & cost. To me it looks highly probable that this will be given by electric propulsion driven by robotic systems. If that happens I do not see much of a future for rail.
Regards,
Robotic systems will enable cross-modal transitions. The most effective way for a robot freight truck to get across country, will be for it to catch a train
for the bulk of the journey
In theory yes, but when I drive on motorways overnight I see a lot of Royal Mail wagons.
If the rail system worked that well wouldn't more things go by rail?
At one time, pre Dr Beeching (spelling ?) there were rail roads every where, but many were closed & replaced by roads. Imho other than major city to city, port to city type things the rail roads are now too few & there is too much handling time for them to compete with road.
The scenarios for robotic transport often include road trains with pods that connect to the road train, then disconnect to deliver.
If it becomes possible to remove the human drivers from transport the cost is significantly reduced. If also accident levels can be reduced the overhead costs are also substantially reduced.
All of this robotic stuff may never happen, but the potential profits for any business that can make it work are so large that I expect it will come about. There are numerous practical problems but given that humans can do all of this sort of stuff there seems no obvious reason why machines that have sensory systems far more capable than a human can not also do it.
Regards,