henry6 Look at the geography of Switzerland! It is mountainous and compact country....rail lines were built before motor vehicles became so prevelant...so they had and have little space to build super six lane highways like we know them. Their best transportation asset is the railroads: improve upon them makes sense because there is no room to build highways and its so mounainous it is cheaper to use the railroads. We keep comparing foreign rail and transportation systems to what evolved here and it is actually like comparing apples to oranges to grapes. Systems evolved in other countries because of the geography and economies and social structures; many of those countries are only as big as most of our states. We keep comparing the differences but not understanding the whys of the differences. Nor do we understand why US railroading would not fit the foreign roles and vice versa.
Look at the geography of Switzerland! It is mountainous and compact country....rail lines were built before motor vehicles became so prevelant...so they had and have little space to build super six lane highways like we know them. Their best transportation asset is the railroads: improve upon them makes sense because there is no room to build highways and its so mounainous it is cheaper to use the railroads.
We keep comparing foreign rail and transportation systems to what evolved here and it is actually like comparing apples to oranges to grapes. Systems evolved in other countries because of the geography and economies and social structures; many of those countries are only as big as most of our states. We keep comparing the differences but not understanding the whys of the differences. Nor do we understand why US railroading would not fit the foreign roles and vice versa.
I wasn't the one making the comparison. It was a pretty highly placed SBB manager himself. There is more than geography and economics driving the "what" and "how" of Swiss rail. There is a really large political and cultural thing going on.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
Paul_D_North_Jr What is the average length of haul, revenue tons per carload, cars and tons per train, and rate per ton-mile, on the SBB as compared to the US ?
What is the average length of haul, revenue tons per carload, cars and tons per train, and rate per ton-mile, on the SBB as compared to the US ?
average length of haul - a lot shorter, about an order of magnitude.
revenue tons per carload - much less, about 1/2.
cars and tons per train - about half the cars per train.
rate per ton-mile - much higher
You left some out:
ton miles per crew hour - about the same as here, surprisingly.
Revenue loads per car day - much higher than here.
Infrastructure cost per ton mile - higher
The SBB manager was of the opinion that if they could get out of the subsidized siding business and nudge those customers to transload, then the SBB could come close to breaking even on the car load business.
It's interesting that transload facilities get mentioned. Unless I'm missing something, this seems to be one of the better ideas to come from shortlines/regionals, taking the concept of the team track and improving on it.
...it's how you make a flow look like a batch. We do batch in a world that flows.
A classic example that comes to mind is the A&M RR. BN dropped that part of the Frisco line and A&M seems to be doing very well as a freight and excursion RR. I took a trip on the line two years ago on a rare mileage trip that went from Springdale to Ft. Smith and return and also Springdale to near Monett, MO the following day.
They now have a dome car that was recently refurbished. We rode in the caboose as a charter and it was a very enjoyable time. I'm glad someone kept that line going because it was part of Frisco.
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