The conversion of truck freight to any rail freight is the largest volume of energy saved ... the very large percentage gain from diesel rail to electric rail is a bit deceptive, since its a percentage gain after a very large percentage gain has been made.

But its about more than the engineering, its about making the change happen as quickly as possible without having to wait for crisis conditions to hit. Under current economic conditions and current diesel prices in the US, if rapid electric freight rail corridors were being established on the terms above, they would quickly capture a quite substantial share of existing truck freight, and of course the addition of electric supply to the parallel existing heavy freight lines would directly increase their capacity.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.