60 Mile Long Traffic Jam - Take the Train?

[Victrola1]

"A traffic jam stretching more than 60 miles in China has entered its ninth day with no end in sight, state media reported...."

Britain's Sky News reported that the snarls have been commonplace since May as a result of a spike in the number of trucks using the roads, with the daily peak reaching about 17,000."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38812252/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

Traffic jams are an indicator of intense economic activity. At least the Chinese are doing maintenance on the roads. 

Is China's rail system at capacity as well? Is this gridlock an indication of what may happen here unless rail and road capacity is increased? 

 

 

 

[samfp1943]

Maybe China is ready for Intermodal rail transport?

I Have never read or seen photos of any intermodal trains in China. Freight seems to be moved by 'conventional' cars and of course the passenger trains sem to dominate news of Chinese railroads. 

[Anonymous]

I have not researched this, but I have heard that the reason that China is building HSR is simply that they need to free up their freight railroad capacity for increasing coal movement.  To a certain extent, it would appear that, from China’s perspective, HSR is simply the current state of the art, so when you shop for new passenger trains, HSR is what you get.  And China, with its booming growth, can afford the top of the line.

 

I would not worry about the same traffic jam development from transportation overload in the U.S.  As our economy worsens, and fuel prices climb, I expect road traffic to diminish.  They are saying that our economy will start getting stronger in 2025, so we might have a highway capacity problem 20-30 years from now.   

[carnej1]

samfp1943

Maybe China is ready for Intermodal rail transport?

I Have never read or seen photos of any intermodal trains in China. Freight seems to be moved by 'conventional' cars and of course the passenger trains sem to dominate news of Chinese railroads. 

China Railways does ship containers on flatcars and is beginning to introduce doublestacks on some lines but I think it's fair to say most non -bulk freight service in the country is still of the "loose car" (i.e box car) variety...

 There are some ohotos on line, they are trying to develop container train services to tie in with the Russian and Eurpoean rail networks (which obv. entails switching boxes from train to train at the gauge breaks as Russia is not standard gauge)..