On the Efficiency of Trains
April 22nd, 2006
The Man in Seat 61 is a site for people who wish to use alternative transportation – alternative to air travel, that is. Sorted by destination, it offers advice and links on train, bus, and freighter travel (that’s right, ships!). I looked into fares from the US to Peru by ship, but unfortunately it seems like they charge similar rates to cheap hotels – which is reasonable until you realize that the trip takes over forty days…
l traveled from New Haven to Denver by train this past December, which took over 50 hours. A length of time long enough that a 5-hour delay wasn’t a big deal. I learned Ruby on Rails and wrote a graphing application in that time. And read a book.
Part of my motivation was that I had heard that a train uses up to 70% less energy and causes up to 85% less air pollution than flying. Futurepundit challenges that assertion, citing a study comparing a fully loaded train to a fully loaded car. A more thorough analysis based on “passenger miles per gallon” can be found here.
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April 23rd, 2006 at 7:23 am
I love the train, but I never used it to save the earth—just to save myself money and hassle. And even the money argument doesn’t work unless you are able to completely eliminate a car (as I was).
So that’s why I believe bicycles are the best form or transportation; plus they actually are the most efficient way to get around...
April 24th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
Wow, I had no idea that the moped actually came out better than a train… in terms of efficiency.
But I suppose two-stroke mopeds still have emissions issues.
...I’ve seeing quite a few electric assist recumbent bikes around the SF area lately. I bet that’d squeeze in around walking or running. : )
April 25th, 2006 at 9:55 am
All this analysis ignores the fact that the train is a “sunk cost” as far as environmental impact is concerned. The train is going to run anyhow. If you take the train, the earth just sees the emissions of the train. If you take your car, the earth sees the emissions of the train AND the emissions of your car. Perhaps this is an argument for eliminating the train
On the fuel effiency of bicycles:
http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/beef.html