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Clarification:  <o:p></o:p> There are two distinctly different trains of thought on railroad electrification.   <o:p></o:p> 1)      The private business economic proposal. 2)      The government environmental proposal.  <o:p></o:p> The first has been around since electrification first was tried.  That is the economic debate as to whether it would make economic sense for the freight railroads to electrify as a private sector business decision.  If the answer to this perennial question were “yes,” then the railroads would electrify.  So the answer is somewhat self-evident.   <o:p></o:p> The second train of thought on electrification is a proposal by government activists to have government step in and electrify the freight railroads as a public sector endeavor to be paid for with public money.  The rationale for this proposal is not based on seeking less costly operation, as is the case with the first train of thought.  Instead, the rationale for this public sector proposal is based on the following two objectives:  <o:p></o:p> 1)      To prevent climate change. 2)      To create an oil-free society.  <o:p></o:p> This proposal has nothing to do with creating less costly rail transportation.  <o:p></o:p> The subject of the article that the original poster linked to this thread is clearly related to this public sector environmental objective and not to the private sector business objective of lower cost rail transportation   <o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> Here is a link to the PDF of the article appearing in Trains November 2009, called “WIRED UP” by Scott Lothes.   <o:p></o:p> <a href="http://www.railsolution.org/uploads/PDF/TRAINSarticle11-09.pdf">http://www.railsolution.org/uploads/PDF/TRAINSarticle11-09.pdf</a>  <o:p></o:p> This advocates for electrification as the public sector, environmental proposal, as does the article linked by the original poster in the first post of this thread.
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