Tag Archives: railroad

U.S. Senate 2014 Freight rail service: improving the performance of America’s rail system

Preface. This Senate hearing is mainly full of oil and grain industry leaders bashing the rail industry and asking Senators to do something about it. But the railroad industry is four times more energy efficient than trucks, and not guilty … Continue reading

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Why railroads are against running locomotives on natural gas

Since oil is finite, natural gas was seen as a fuel that could extend how long oil lasted by being a “bridge” fuel.  Since natural gas is finite also, and would lead to dependence on unstable foreign nations, the plan … Continue reading

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Coal power plants depend on railroads to deliver coal

[ The extract of a Senate hearing below is mostly spent on testimony by utilities bashing the railroads for not delivering enough coal due to a disaster in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming area, where coal dust infiltrated the stone … Continue reading

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Why You Should Love Trains

Why You Should Love Trains by Alice Friedemann    November 13, 2014 Trains rock! Trains are over 4 times more fuel efficient than trucks. On average it takes just 1 gallon to move a ton 473 miles, using just 2% of … Continue reading

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Statistics: USA Rail, Truck, and Water Transportation

Average Miles of track, # of Rail Tonnage Length road, or Carloads 2010 in tons of haul navigable water Class 1 Rail 29,200,000 1,851,000,000 914 95,700 Class II & III Rail 7,800,000 600,000,000 32 43,000 Truck 8,778,000,000 4,016,000 Inland water … Continue reading

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Almost half of Rail Freight is Energy, increasingly Crude Oil

Source: American Association of Railroads. 46% of all tonnage hauled by freight trains is Energy: In 2014, crude oil will likely be 650,000 carloads — 2% of all carloads, 2.2% of tonnage.  In addition 2.6% of rail tonnage was refined … Continue reading

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Expressways & Interstates are only designed to last for 20 years

Preface. I make the case that civilization would end in a week if trucks stopped running in my first book, and though I had in mind that they would be running low on diesel fuel on the downside of world … Continue reading

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Infrastructure

  Transportation Infrastructure 2009. The economic impact of current Investment Trends in surface Transportation Infrastructure. American Society of Civil Engineers. Highways, bridges, railroads, and transit systems are vital to America’s economic system. But the nation’s surface transportation infrastructure has been … Continue reading

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