Posted on 08/31/2008 6:03:21 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
TEXARKANA The company selected to design Interstate 69 has revealed plans to also implement the worlds first air rail freight system in the corridor, possibly starting in Texarkana, Texas.
You [Texarkana ] have railroads here, you already have an interstate, bringing I-69 is another interstate, youve got Oklahoma, youve got I-49, said Gary Kuhn, senior project manager for Zachary American Infrastructure.
This is what the logistics world likes to see that opportunity to go from one mode to another very efficiently. In a presentation to the Wilbur Smith Rotary Club, Kuhn said the freight shuttle is a new idea, under development by researchers at Texas A&M University.
We started looking at this very intently relative to what we were doing on [Trans-Texas Corridor ] 35, he said. We stumbled upon this quite by accident as the technology we think we should use, and for the last two years weve been vetting it.
This was born in Texas, it should be done in Texas first, Kuhn said.
The electric, automated shuttle would produce no emissions and would use steel wheels locked into a steel running surface, preventing derailment.
Raised 20 feet in the air, it uses electric impulses to move a pair of Amtrak-like transporters and can carry containers and trailers of various sizes.
Kuhn said 425-horsepower motors would be used to take the shuttle to full speed in seconds, then the engine drops to 40-horsepower.
Theres more than enough power on the grid for this, he said.
Property owners in the Trans-Texas 69 corridor will feel less impact because the elevated rail uses a smaller footprint. They can retain their land and get a return from easements allowing support structures.
Multimodal facilities are interchanges for the cargo, loading areas between trucks and rail. Bowie County, Texas, Judge James Carlow said that type of facility could easily be built on the Red River Army Depot property.
This is a new concept, and its going to cost a lot of money, Carlow said about the freight shuttle. But when you can run it for a tenth of what the fuel cost will be, it pays back in a hurry. No estimates were made on the cost of construction, but it would be built with private funds.
Theres a lot of private money chasing these ideas because they see its the future, Carlow said.
An electric rail can move 100, 000 pounds of cargo for 8 cents per mile. The same transport on a truck, with diesel $ 5 per gallon, would be 85 cents per mile.
At the design speed, which is 62 miles an hour, we will be able to run 10, 000 loads per day each direction, Kuhn said.
With the bulk of American freight moved by trucks, Kuhn provided statistics that suggested an electric rail could benefit the industry rather than cut jobs. He referred to a projection of truck traffic increases by the American Society of Civil Engineering. By 2020, theres going to be an equivalent of 10 million, 40-foot containers that no port in the United States can handle, he said. Theres going to be a new market that no one can deal with. Kuhn said the freight shuttle combines the benefits of trucks and trains and is not intended to replace either but will fill in the gap of short hauls that trains dont want. Their market is 650 or more miles, Kuhn said. Were on the truck side of things. Use of the rail would be purchased by trucking companies who may have the option of owning their own transporters.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
I am sure all the Liberal Free Trade Globalists are ecstatic over this news.
All this money being re-distributed for this stuff would be better used investing in America and creating jobs in America
As long as it’s done with PRIVATE money, I welcome its success (or failure).
But if it’s “8 cents per mile” along with capital costs that work out to $8 per mile for the next hundred years (spread across the taxpayers of the state), oh and then another equivalent amount of federal money stolen from me and others who’ll never see it but nonetheless foot the bill, not interested.
And if you think I’m exaggerating, bear in mind that for conventional public transportation, those $2 train rides cost $7-8 in variable costs alone ($8-10 for bus rides), and the fixed costs are left out completely! Even though they make up 50% or more of the total costs, they’re assumed to be ZERO because it’s federal money (so that’s 15-20 bucks of taxpayer expenditure for every 2 bucks in revenue).
An electric rail can move 100, 000 pounds of cargo for 8 cents per mile. The same transport on a truck, with diesel $ 5 per gallon, would be 85 cents per mile. ,?p>
If that's all it costs to transport 100,000 lbs, then why is my electric bill so high?????????
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Line_(New_York_City)
< /smirk >
I am encouraged by it. We are operating at almost full capacity in our rail and ports, so this might speed the throughput of containers and make intermodal transport cheaper. Trade goes two ways, and right now our exports are what is holding the economy up.
It is idiot envirowhacko thinking like this that burns my butt. Where do they think the electricity come from? Here's a hint: there hasn't been a nuclear power plant built in the US for over 30 years.
I believe it comes mostly from stuff that Harry Reid thinks makes us sick.
When I learned that the Texas Highway Institute was at TX A&M, suddenly the reason for all those screwy freeway interchanges was clear - Aggies designed them! ;)
Once again Gov. Perry and his TTC gang think of creative ways to waste our tax dollars in even more complicated ways.
BTTT
>>>Why does this map not follow existing business routes? Why is it so concerned with taking goods from Mexico to/through the U.S. to Canada?
I’d surely support electric elevated rail if it were a private U.S. consortium.
Anything that the Trans-Texas Corridor touches is highly suspect and has already lost credibility because it carries political ends more than commercial products.
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