Quote:
Originally Posted by p38fln
As for expanding the electrical network - trucks are some of the most fuel efficient vehicles on the highway...
|
But in the long run, it doesn't matter how fuel efficient trucks or diesel-electric trains are, if we don't have the fuel.
OTOH, I figured out once that you could run the current US rail system by building just 19 1 GW reactors - and that's just 1-1 replacing the energy from current diesel, without figuring the higher efficiency of electric, and the recapture of braking energy on the downgrades.
I sometimes see trains belching diesel smoke while going over Donner Pass, one struggling uphill westbound from Reno, another eastbound from Sacramento, and wonder why no one can seem to see that two electric trains, timed right, could do it practically for free.