Anyone read or hear about this norfolk southern crap?

If a truck weighing 40 tons gets 7MPG, it's getting 7x40 ton-miles per gallon (280 ton-miles per gallon). Of course, you're lucky to be able to haul 25 tons with the weight of your tractor and trailer, so that'd put you closer to 175 ton-miles/gallon.

 

Watch for a lot more freight to go on barges . That is far more economical than rail . I'm all for it , especially up the East Coast where it would reduce traffic on I-95 . So what if the mega carriers hire a few less newbies every year ? The highways are already carrying more traffic than they were designed for . The more freight moved off the road the better . http://www.hansonengineers.com/insight/0907/story1.htm

 

Not much pollution if they shut the vehicle off for a long train .

 

Nothing wrong with that! Like Johnny Cash said, ( well, actually sang)

 

I agree with the fact that the rail is more economical than trucks, trucking is not the most economical way to move freight. I think it will come to a point in the future where most freight will be put back on the rails, sure OTR trucking will be a thing of the past, but that's life, things change and we move on

 

..... in addition, the railroads are at near or max capacity as it is. Unless there was a HUGE, no end in sight fuel shortage, which in turn would crippled our ability to move frieght, there's no way the railroads could expand to be any real threat as Congress would never pass laws giving the railroads new right of ways. The public uproar would be way bigger than the stink over off shore drilling!

 

I have to agree. Those ads are just "feel good" ads. The cost, laws, and foreseeable administrations would never allow rail to get as big as it once was during the industrial revolution.

OTR trucking will not disappear in our lifetimes. Now our grandchildrens, that is a different story.

 

While we're at it, let's see how efficient a car REALLY is per ton-mile.

An average sized car may weight about one ton, but let's use a heavier weight of 1.5 tons. A car getting good mileage gets about... 30MPG? So, 45 ton-miles per gallon for a car.

Give you a good idea of what we really need to be looking at for fuel efficiency and pollution reduction?