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ATA now supports longer and/or heavier trucks

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APG45 - You're missing the salient point. When you say that heavier trucks will cause more road damage (than current GVW standards), you are apparently assuming that the weight per axle/per wheel will increase, which is not the case. Two 80k trucks (each riding on 18 wheels/5 axles) actually cause more road damage than a prospective 150k truck riding on 36 wheels/8 axles (2 steering wheels, 2 idler wheels, 8 drive wheels on two axles, 2 sets of 12 wheels each on three axles), even though the total cargo weight is the same. On the LCV front, it is the same thing. Two 53' 50k trailers being pulled by a single cab unit will cause less road damage than if those same two trailers are being pulled by two separate cab units, because the double combo eliminates the tare weight of one of the cab units. That's why I think all these tears falling forth by pro-railroad types over "increased" road damage are of the crocodile variety, because no matter how you slice it increasing GVW and LCV standards will definitely not increase road damage, and will actually decrease road damage relative to revenue loads. The only way this fear could be realized is if weight per wheel/axle was allowed to be increased, and I don't see that happening. Don't forget that Canada allows GVW standards up to 160k or so, and it does make a difference in the softwood lumber market in that this allows Canadian transport rates to be lower relative to US transport rates. And yes, a few pennies in such hotly competitive markets does make a difference. NS2317 - I'm curious. Why do you think that intersections will need to be rebuilt? Are you still of the mindset that you'd see double 53' combos driving on city streets? Did you miss the point I made that the likelyhood is such LCV's would be restricted to Interstate highways and other compatitble roads? What will happen is that trailers will be delivered to the roadhead singly, then combined at the head of the Interstate. When the destination is approached, the consist will be broken up back to single trailers for the final leg of the journey. And there would be no need to build all new TOFC equipment, since most spine cars are spec'd for 53' and some are spec'd for 57'. Trucking companies will just use 5th wheel dollies to connect the trailing trailer. An example of the savings by these new proposals will be the ability of trucks to pull two 20' containers (or a 40'/20' ; 40'/40' combo) using the b-train configuration, whereas now we are limited to one container per truck. It should be noted that both the 20/20 and 20/40 combos would still fit into the current length standard.
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