[sustran] Re: Light Rail Energy Consumption

[Alan P Howes]

Hmm. Or it might be that Light Rail is the TRB's flavour of the month,
and anyway American's can't understand anything occurring on a global
scale unless they can see it in their backyard.

Excuse my cynicism - but I am still waiting for our (US) Light Rail
consultants to come up with an acceptable environmental analysis. They
seemed to find no problem at all in excluding power station emissions
from their calculations - reasons being (1) it is stationary and (20
they couldn't find any data either. Whither professionalism ...?

(Other possible reason - if they did a proper analysis, it might
favour buses, and preliminary design of a bus system doesn't generate
nearly as much in consultancy fees as does a rail system.)


On Fri, 01 Nov 2002 15:24:59 +1030, "Perkins, Alan (TSA)"
<Alan.Perkins at transport.sa.gov.au> wrote to
"'sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org'" <sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org>:

>Paul, Todd and Christof,
>
>Thanks very much for your replies to my request.  Unfortunately I'm still
>searching - Paul, as per your suggestion I will follow up with Jeff
>Kenworthy.
>
>Todd, surprisingly, as far as I can see, the Transportation Research Board
>doesn't even include energy consumption and GHG emissions in its
>externalities.  Is this because greenhouse is still low on the agenda, or,
>as per some Australian arguments, it can't be adequately attributed a
>monetary value...or some other reason?
>
>Christof, there was an interesting chart in the weblink to the UPI
>institute, which gave a comparion of primary energy and greenhouse gas
>emissions between "PKW HD", "Straba HSB" and "Busse HSB".  Unfortunately for
>my purposes it is again expressed on a passenger kilometre basis not a
>vehicle kilometre basis, but it looks interesting nevertheless.  I assume
>that the compariosn is between train, light rail and bus, but I don't have
>any German speakers handy to translate for me, so can you tell me what the
>three categories are?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Alan Perkins
>
>Dr Alan Perkins
>Senior Transport Policy Analyst
>Transport Policy Group
>Transport SA
>Room 702
>PO Box 1
>Walkerville
>South Australia
>5081
>ph +61 8 8343 2436
>fax +61 8 8343 2939
>alan.perkins at transport.sa.gov.au
>http://www.transport.sa.gov.au 
>Disclaimer: The information contained in this e-mail message may be
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>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Todd Alexander Litman [mailto:litman at vtpi.org]
>Sent: Wednesday, 30 October 2002 12:18 AM
>To: sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
>Subject: [sustran] Re: Light Rail Energy Consumption
>
>
>
>There is a nice new report that has some information on transit vehicle 
>emissions:
>
>ECONorthwest and PBQD, Estimating the Benefits and Costs of Public Transit 
>Projects, TCRP Report 78, 
>(http://gulliver.trb.org/publications/tcrp/tcrp78/index.htm), TRB 
>(www.trb.org), 2002.
>
>
>
>
>At 04:26 PM 10/29/2002 +1030, you wrote:
>>Dear Sustraners-
>>
>>Does anyone have information on the energy consumption of light rail?
>>
>>I need energy consumption in Kwh or MJ per vehicle kilometre (often
>referred
>>to as the energy intensity).  I have energy consumption per passenger
>>kilometre for a few Australian networks eg. Adelaide's tram = 1.2 MJ per
>>passenger km (full fuel cycle).  However, figures based on passenger
>>kilometres assume certain passenger loadings, which can vary widely between
>>systems and dramatically alter the energy efficiency compared with other
>>modes.
>>
>>Also, any information on greenhouse gas emissions per vehicle kiloemtre
>>would be welcome (although this varies with the fuel mix used in generated
>>the electricity used by each particular system).
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Alan Perkins
>>
>>Dr Alan Perkins
>>Senior Transport Policy Analyst
>>Transport Policy Group
>>Transport SA
>>Room 702
>>PO Box 1
>>Walkerville
>>South Australia
>>5081
>>ph +61 8 8343 2436
>>fax +61 8 8343 2939
>>alan.perkins at transport.sa.gov.au
>>http://www.transport.sa.gov.au
>>Disclaimer: The information contained in this e-mail message may be
>>confidential, and may also be the subject of privilege or public interest
>>immunity. This e-mail and any attached files should be scanned to detect
>>viruses and no liability for loss or damage resulting from the use of any
>>attached files is accepted. If you are not the intended recipient, any use,
>>disclosure or reproduction of this document is unauthorised. If you have
>>received this e-mail in error please telephone +61 8 8343 2222.
>
>
>Sincerely,
>Todd Litman, Director
>Victoria Transport Policy Institute
>"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
>1250 Rudlin Street
>Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada
>Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560
>Email: litman at vtpi.org
>Website: http://www.vtpi.org

-- 
Alan Howes, Dubai, UAE (Otherwise Perthshire, Scotland)
alaninthegulf at yahoo.co.uk
Professional website   (Needs Updating!): 
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