this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2023
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Delivering a single person by train is also stupid, but in a lot of places there are enough people making similar journeys that having a train does make sense. The same can be applied to freight.
Replacing every truck with an electric one would be an environmental disaster. More freight needs to be moved by rail, and the trucks that we still need should be electric.
And my content doesn't go against that. Just electrifying trucks won't solve the problem. We need fewer trucks.
I appreciate you disclosing that you're making a strawman argument at the very beginning. Very considerate.
Is that the most recent picture of a turntable you could find? Because you might've noticed that they aren't around very much anymore, because these days trains can just go in both directions.
It should have been a rail yard, but you can not see through the cargo are cars. Hence you would need two locos on both ends to quickly turn around the train, as long as you can not see backwards.
Or just one extra track to move your loco to the other end.
You're straw-manning me because my argument was specifically about long haul trucking. Short haul trucks can be electrified. This is why both Kennworth and Peterbult have short haul electric trucks that they sell and you can buy right now. There is currently is no manufacturer currently selling electric trucks with a sleeper cab in the US.
In the US, most long haul freight is carried by trucks. Freight rail exists but its market share has been dwindling for decades, and none of it is electrified. Electrifying all trucks in the US, as advocated by the article is non-viable. Long haul freight should be handled by rail instead of trucks, because that is a technology that exists and can be built.
When you say:
I understood:
The article is about banning trucks the sale of fossil fuel trucks by 2030, so that is imho extremly easy to missunderstand.