Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
General Discussion
»
Can Cargo Sprinters be used here in the US?

Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
I understand the observation that this is a concept in search of a market.  In watching the video, it does not seem to really define the market.  Instead, it focuses on the concept itself with its high fuel economy, single operator, sophisticated couplers, advanced braking, etc.   <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> I don’t see a market for this new technology to be blended into conventional freight rail operations.  Not only would it pose many operational complications, but also I simply cannot see the advantage over heavy rail operating in the same area.        <o:p></o:p> We have had some previous threads discussing electrification of U.S. railroads as a component of a larger concept of a U.S. National Transportation System outlined by the FRA in their recent mission statement.  For freight transportation, the FRA proposal calls for diverting most of long haul trucking to rail, and electrifying rail.  <o:p></o:p> The most unresolved part of the proposal is the question of how freight will be handled between the rail terminal and the customer’s dock.  Trucking gives the needed flexibility in the terminal-to-dock haulage.  However, shifting most of long haul trucking onto rail will require rail to be as fast as trucking dock-to-dock.  This need for speed will not be met simply by shifting truck freight onto trains.  It will also require the terminal-to-dock handling to be speeded up.  How will this be accomplished?  <o:p></o:p> Can this be accomplished by speeding up the trucking that currently serves this pickup and delivery function, or can this function be speeded up more effectively with rail?  Considering that the FRA objective in getting truck freight off the highways and onto rail is fuel economy, that same objective would apply to the pickup and delivery function now being served by truck.  So improved fuel economy would be one argument of serving this pickup and delivery need by rail.    <o:p></o:p> If rail is the solution, I do not think it will be simply an extension of conventional heavy rail operations right to every dock.  Instead, the rail terminal-to-dock segment will be a radically different form of rail operation, compared to conventional freight rail.  It might be something along the lines of the Sprinter concept in the video, but I don’t think that that concept is anywhere close to being the ultimate tool for the pickup and delivery component of the haul.   <o:p></o:p> In any case, because the pickup and delivery rail system would not be integrated with conventional rail operations, the pickup and delivery system would be free to make many design departures from conventional rail practice, including the use of remote control, and even a different gage if necessary.  <o:p></o:p> Not only would this new pickup and delivery rail system be a completely new and unique mechanical plant, it would also likely spawn related changes to how containers are handled at the rail terminal.  I don’t have the details worked out, but I see this whole rail pickup and delivery system as a kind of automated Futurama vision.  It would be way outside the box so to speak.   <o:p></o:p> So that is the market that I see, if there is any market at all. I do not think that the Sprinter exactly is the right concept to serve that market.  It might serve some specific need in that market.  But, if anything, the Sprinter concept represents to me just the spirit of thinking that will have to be applied to this all-new rail pickup and delivery service.  In that sense, there may be a relationship with the Sprinter. <o:p></o:p> Some may think that such new pickup and delivery by rail is too radical to happen, but we are living in a time of big changes.  Electrifying the railroads, building a new energy grid, shoehorning new HSR and LRT into freight corridors, and getting most of long haul trucking off the highways and onto rail—these are all big changes.  <o:p></o:p> ~And, because this new rail pickup and delivery system will be such a radical departure from conventional freight rail, and because it replaces trucking, one might wonder who will end up running it.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag