Posted on 06/06/2012 2:44:37 PM PDT by Zakeet
Freight normally hauled by trucks could one day soon be shipped on an electric-powered, overhead guideway across Texas. It may seem like an idea more suitable for Tomorrowland – and artist renderings of the project do resemble Disney’s famed monorail system – but Texas officials are encouraging a privately-funded business to get the project up and running, perhaps within six years.
[The developers] have formed Freight Shuttle International, a company that is cobbling together the estimated $2.5 billion needed to build the first leg of this futuristic transportation system. The guideways would be built within the existing right-of-way of Interstate 35, initially stretching about 250 miles from San Antonio to Waxahachie – but eventually extending north through Dallas-Fort Worth, and south to the Mexican border. Ultimately, Freight Shuttle guideways could be built on more than 2,000 miles of highway right-of-way across the state, he said.
The system would haul cargo of various sizes, packed in both intermodal containers and freight trailers. Terminals would be built at each end of the route, so that trucks could load and off-load their goods onto the Freight Shuttle guideways. The shipments would be placed on unmanned transporters powered by linear induction motors using electricity and a magnetic field. They would glide on steel wheels across the guideways at about 60 mph, Roop told members of the Tarrant Regional Transportation Coalition during a meeting Wednesday in Fort Worth.
Shippers would be able to get their goods across the state for pennies on the dollar compared to what it costs to haul freight in tractor-trailers, said Ken Allen, a retired logistics executive for grocery giant H-E-B Stores and chief executive officer of Freight Shuttle International’s operations unit.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.star-telegram.com ...
Why not just build a normal railroad track with no crossings? A lot cheaper!
Why not just build a normal railroad track with no crossings? A lot cheaper!
Considering the fact that the trucks carry the products we buy, I’d say that we’re at least partially responsible for damage done to the roads. If we want to stop buying things we can ease the wear and tear.
It isn’t necessary to get all trucks off the road — it’s a matter of taking off as many as makes economic sense to do so.
That’s why I added the bit about switching modes. New hubs can be added, the distance between them doesn’t need to remain at 500 miles. That likely reflects the economics of older intermodal technologies — the point where it becomes economic to go multi-modal. If containers can be switched rapidly and cheaply (which new technologies do allow), then the break-even distance between trucking only, and multi-modal drops.
In thinking about this it could function much like a ski chair lift. The next problem would be to devise the terminal at each to load and unload the shipping containers at an efficient pace of production...
You do realize you’ve created a false dilemma? We can continue to use trucks when it makes sense to do so. If multi-modial solutions are used when economic (rail, barge, or ship), then we will have reduced wear and tear on the infrastructure, and saved shipping costs. Now, we can use those tax savings, and freight savings to buy more of what we actually want.
Not enough stimulus.
Note that the Milwaukee RR took out their well engineered, electrified rail operations in MT/ID/WA in the 1970's.
Rail operations at the ends of some coal operations have continuous load/dump loops.
It doesn’t matter. Here in the real world things are the way they are.
A truck loosely based on this idea could let cars pass beneath, doubling lane capacity.
Right. They’ve always been that way, always will. Nothing ever changes. No new technologies are ever developed, and if they are they don’t work.
Powered by electricity? We had rolling brownouts last summer. Is there suddenly a glut of electrical power?
I’m guessing you haven’t checked bridge heights on I-35 lately. Most of them are only a little taller than a standard truck. Rebuilding ALL the bridges could cost more than adding a lane in some areas.
Even if it was only adopted by UPS, FedEx and USPS in Texas, it would get a third of the trucks currently on I-35 off the road and they could have their containers dropped off at their facilities right away rather than having to wait for a train to arrive, unload, go to the next station, unload, etc., etc. - and unlike the train, it scales up and down plus isn’t held to a fixed schedule.
FYI, it’s a bunch of ex-Lockheed engineers behind this.
Looks to me like they’re mostly concerned with going green.
http://www.metrans.org/nuf/documents/Roop.pdf
Apparently this isn’t as privately funded as the article indicates. Stephen Roop seems to favor “Public-private partnerships” for everything else so I think its fair to assume he favors them here.
http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-4565-1.pdf
In general, it's not a good idea to stand or walk under same unless you have some redundant support(s) and a good reason to be there.
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