One is by rail; two is by sea

The Roanoke Times ^ | December 18, 2005 | The Roanoke Times

[norraad]

..both more expensive than hemp seed oil.

Also less btu/gal..

[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.

[mvpel]

The answer is nuclear power. With sufficient cheap energy, any amount of synfuels can be manufactured.

You could have a nuclear-powered locomotive, too, with a closed-cycle gas-turbine engine.

[norraad]

I'll take two!

[boris]

It would be enormous. Imagine a train wreck with a nuclear loco. I happen to live about a mile from a major rail line and frequently wonder how the folks whose houses are right up next to it can stand the noise. Imagine the NIMBY reaction to a nuclear locomotive. To carry enough shielding would result in gigantism. Familiarize yourself with the technical issues that killed the nuclear airplane and look into Project Pluto. You might even look at the studies of the outcomes of a crash of a nuclear aircraft. Double-plus ungood.

--Boris

[boris]

"The Big Pig (yes, that's a deliberate slur) is a highway tunnel project. It has nothing (as far as I know) to do with mass transit."

It does indeed.

--Boris

[fallujah-nuker]

Both the barge and train numbers are off, the train figure is much too high and the barge figure is way too low.

I wondered about the barge going from Portland, Maine to San Diego in 12.5 days! That trip would have to go by way of the Panama Canal, and barges are rather slow. I think it would be closer to a month.

[fallujah-nuker]

Nuclear power should used to supply electricity for railway electrification, proven technology with tens of thousands of mile of electrified lines around the world. I think in France it is already the case that most trains are powered by nuclear power via electrification. With this system energy lost in braking is actually returned to the electrical grid rather than wasted as heat.

[Christopher Lincoln]

I never heard this about cost allocation, but it seems credible. Is there further documentation on this?

We are told that it's impossible for railroads to make a profit on passenger service; this might be true for all I know, but it's never been put to a fair test. Of course Amtrak loses money hand over fist; that's what usually happens when the government runs a business.