Tomorrowland meets Texas - Futuristic freight system planned for I-35 corridor

Fort Worth Star-Telegram ^ | June 6, 2012

[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.

[SeminoleCounty]

Sounds similiar to the NAFTA SuperHighway that open border RINOs like Medved keep trying to tell us is a figment of our imagination.

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Yes, it is. It is the same plan they had for the NAFTA Superhighway...which was to have a rail line built next to the toll highway.

Michael Medved is a figment of his own imagination

[Spktyr]

One of the few things that the TTC types got right was recognition of the fact that I-35 is in desperate need of help.

That said, the TTC/Superhighway was to have conventional rail built in part of the enormous right of way. This isn’t conventional rail, the government isn’t paying for it, and it doesn’t take anyone’s land to build it - it runs in the existing highway right of way. Not really seeing what the problem with the idea is; and if nothing else, getting some of the truck traffic off 35 will buy us time to figure out what to do with the rest of the thing.

[Paladin2]

"Today, CSX can move a ton of freight nearly 500 miles, on average, per gallon of diesel fuel"

OK, trucks in most states can carry 80,000lbs-truck tare of 10,000 = 70,000 # of load. At 7 mpg, that is 245 ton-miles / gal.

So, rail is ~ 2x more fuel efficient than trucks.

More to follow.

[Kellis91789]

I’m following your math.

70K lbs is 35 tons. So that is 35 gal of diesel for CSX to carry the same load as a truck 500 miles. 500 / 35 is 14mpg.

So that is 2x if the truck gets 7mpg fully loaded. But remember that for each load you need a truck driver but the monorail is automated with a few people monitoring thousands of loads. Hence my 2.5x factor for truck operating costs.

And according to this:
http://www.dieselserviceandsupply.com/Diesel_Fuel_Consumption.aspx

larger diesel generators are more efficient than the 50 cent/kwh figure. I think we can assume diesel electric trains are using the largest, most efficient diesel generators. The largest one on this list appears to produce electricity for 29 cents/kwh. So instead of a 5x factor for cheaper grid electricity, it looks like only a factor of 3x (29 cents vs 10 cents).

That would make the grid-electric powered monorail system only 7.5x as cost efficient as trucks. That is 13 pennies on the dollar rather than 8 pennies.