(2) And this, of course, is why the main target at the current point in time is getting Express freight out of trucks and onto Express freight rail, since the gain from HSFR is only if it shoots freight planes out of the sky.
(3) Goes back to (1) ... it has to integrate into the existing intermodal container system, and from my experience in working in the warehouse, a small enclosed mini-container is going to be the only serious option if the process is going to be largely automated.
But no hurry sorting out the details ... Express freight 110kph, 25 ton axle load / 160kph 21 ton axle load, that's the target currently in the frame, and that's just not at a speed that it can be seamlessly inserted into the HSR network. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
Trucks do not have a 35 ton/axle cargo! They have 35 tons cargo, and 5-6 axles...
In logistics, you could perhaps imagine a HSR line between two important nodes (like Paris/Lyon/Marseille in France), taking trucks on a no booking, shuttle basis so as to lower the community costs of road repairing - which is actually a government indirect subvention, at least in Europe-. Thus, road and train transport would compete on a same cost basis... which is conform to economic doxa. A free fox in a free henhouse!
The axle loading is for the rail car ... and, yes, if there is a Freight Express rail clearway, with those axle loading
Designing a High Speed Freight Rail set that takes whole trucks is, for one thing, hauling weight around unnecessarily, magnifying the extra energy cost of HSFR over Express Freight Rail, and, for another thing, the job of trucks should be to haul a container the last mile to from the railhead to the final street address or warehouse ... the extension of the HSFR should be the load racking into a standard container to go to that closest railhead. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
