[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

Won't people just find alternatives to black gold when that becomes rare?

[samtheman]

Let the market work it all out.

[Fraxinus]

Simmons said that shipping freight from San Diego to Portland, Maine, takes 4.5 days by truck, 12.5 days by barge and 25 days by train. With abundant, cheap fuel, the incentive to move off road is nonexistent.

Unless there is a typo, these time estimates tell the real problem with our current rail operators. Rail should take about as long as truck (from terminal to terminal), possibly less for truly long distance trips. I have been told that the biggest problem with shipping things by rail for many companies is that they find rail to be unreliable, i.e. freight car is not a designated delivery point at the time designated.

[boris]

The answer is nuclear power. With sufficient cheap energy, any amount of synfuels can be manufactured. A second answer is methane clathrates (look on google).

Mass transit, huh? Substitute "collective" for "mass" and you've got it. Mass transit is for sheep and cattle. With mass transit you leave from a point of the government's choosing, at a time of the government's choosing, to a destination of its choosing. With the private car you leave from a point of your choosing, to a destination of your choosing, at a time of your choosing. No wonder the collectivists hate the private car so much and fawn over boondoggles like the "big dig" in Boston.

--Boris

[Wonder Warthog]

"The need for massive improvements, including dedicated truck lanes and expensive tolls, could be avoided if only truck traffic were diverted off the highways and onto the railroads, chants the rising chorus of rail enthusiasts."

You've STILL got to have trucks for the distance from the rail terminal to company warehouse, and from company warehouse to final destination. Trucks are NOT gonna go away.

This is just another red-herring from the "choo-choo train" lovers.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

IMHO all long haul freight ( long haul defined as more than 250 miles) should be by railroad.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

[Myrddin]

Roanoke is a railroad town. Norfolk Southern to be precise. The article ignores the principal fuel used by a locomotive: diesel oil. Even the eletric trains found in Europe require a source of energy to generate the electricity. France and Belgium have lots of nuclear reactors. The electric infrastructure in the U.S. is already in need of upgrade, but principally functions off coal, gas and oil. We need more nuclear and hydro power.

[Porterville]

Oil will never fall short as new resources are replaced and new deposits are developed. I call BS

[MNJohnnie]

Gee Let's prepare for the future by rushing BACK to 19th Century technology! This is just too stupid to even waste time on. Peak Oil is pure "Global Warming" style Environmental wacko propaganda. Anyone talking about "Peak Oil" is so completely out of touch with basic reality that anything they say is obvious garbage. Gee "Objective Journalists" how about talking to Oil Industry people who actually KNOW what they are talking about instead of merely reprinting your pet Gov's Press Release as a "news" story???? What to get off Oil pump as much as you can and burn it quick as you can. The ONLY way Oil is going to go away is when the Market finds it cost effective to market an alternative. All this squealing for an Old Soviet Union style command drive alternative will work JUST as good as a Stalin 5 year plan or Mao's "Great Leap Forward". Government is NOT the solution to this problem, GOVERMENT is CREATING the problem.