[sustran] Re: rail vs road freight distribution

[Daryl Oster]

> Original Message From: K. Tsourlakis
> 
> A little scrutiny can prove that motorways are an oxymoron per se. Indeed,
> road transport has advantage over rail transport where there are scattered
> movements (many sources and destinations with low loads). But motorways
> are always built along corridors with concentrated movements (few sources
> and destinations with high loads). So motorways are NEVER a good solution.

I have presented ample data that shows that motorways have marginalized
passenger rail to the point of having a 90% market share in 1910, to a less
than a 2% market share today.  This fact appears to contradict the absolute
terms of your supposition.  Please support you thesis with fact and
historical data that proves your point.  


> Agricultural products are rarely transported directly from fields to
> shops. Usually they are concentrated in warehouses near production areas,
> afterwards distributed to warehouses near consumption centres (i.e.
> cities) and from there distributed to the final consumption (stores). The
> central movement (between warehouses - the long one) is a concentrated
> movement, hence better implemented by rail.
K. Tsourlakis,

Good points about rail use for freight. It is true that most produce is
moved using the most economical methods, and this is often a combination of
truck and rail.  Please consider that a fully developed ETT network could
transport produce a pallet at a time directly from the producer to retailer,
-- without all the logistic gymnastics of trucks, containers, warehouses,
distribution centers, trains, ships, etc.  

ETT (Evacuated Tube Transport) can achieve as high of a transport flux as
rail, with less than a tenth of the per mile infrastructure cost.  ETT is
also virtually silent (sound cannot be transported in a vacuum), and ETT is
faster than jets.  With all the benefits available with ETT, why would
anyone promote rail infrastructure for new development, especially since
cars/roads have displaced passenger rail to ultra high density niche markets
in developed countries.  

Daryl Oster
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