Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaneajanderson
How feasible is that over long distances though? I know there are subways that run for 10's of miles, but if I leave the town I work in and head to the state capital (the nearest town of more than 1,000 that direction) it's about 100 miles of nothing in between, and I'm on the more populated side of the state. There are places west of Bismarck that are quite literally unoccupied for 50 miles any direction, especially away from the interstate. Without period power stations to keep the line voltage up I don't see such a system being feasible up here. Add in cold and snow, as well as wildlife crossing the road, and it gets uglier.
However, simply adding steel rail to the road bed for truck traffic (and frankly regular cars too) could be a huge positive in a lot of ways. Probably a pipe dream though.
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The article I posted above talked about the old electric railroad we had here in Western MT, and it was long before we had the bustling metro cities of 50,000 we have now LOL! Seriously though, this would first be more feasible on say the flat, straight, very highly truck trafficked, say I80 or I5. There would also be problems with snow and ice but there are already problems with snow and ice in the current designs.
You know what might work well for ND and WY would be to line the interstates with windmills. Direct power from one mill to the next for the cars covering the distance on that little section. Basically no added electric grid needed... until the wind stops which is only once every 15 years I hear.