Your posting and a number of other energy related OT postings to the main CSCO thread do nothing but make me question, even more, how we laid the grounds for the current and future energy crisis when our dependence on railroads shifted to cars/trucks and roads. I am not referring to a time, way back, where cars were new and roads were basically dirt, used by horse drawn wagons, but when both coexisted, but $$ was put into expanding the road system rather than maintaining and upgrading the rail lines.
My interest is in PA, which until about 1920 was the wealthiest state in the U.S.A. PA is blessed by fertile agricultural land and natural resources. The prosperity of PA was despite it's being the most rural state, with more people living in rural areas than any state in the union, up to and including the 2000 census. One could hardly consider PA prosperous now, though, with numerous rural, down-right remote rural zones, with little to attract people from moving in and nothing to keep young people in when they grow up (unless they can work the family farm).
One of the largest counties, Sullivan (slightly smaller than RI) has one traffic light and one middle/secondary school for the entire county. At one time there were over 100 miles of railroads here with six daily round-trip passenger trains to Philadelphia. I do not know (yet) the freight trains schedules, but a local bottling company provided daily deliveries of milk to Trenton, NJ (about 200 miles away) and coal was transported from mines in this county (now closed) to NY and New England. The extensive railroad system in this rural, mountainous county brought in, and supported, thriving tanneries and silk cloth manufacturers as well as hardwood lumber.These economic opportunities were only possible because of the railroads and provided local farmers with local, off-season employment options and year round employment for waves of immigrants. These trains also shipped livestock, fruit, and other agricultural products of local farmers to metropolitan zones in the Middle Atlantic and New England (Boston).
Now? There are no railroad lines in Sullivan County and a number of ghost towns. Other than a few local shops, restaurants, general stocks, one car dealership (Ford for used cars sales and service), people who do not farm have to drive about an hour for employment. There is dip-squat industry in Sullivan County if one excludes summer tourists (who like 'nature') and hunters. Taking inflation into account, it is **much** more expensive today for a farmer to sell his crops than it was when the rail system was available. The financial security of many PA farmers flew out the door when 'modern' notions that roads (for cars and trucks) was the way of the future with railroads, transportation of people and goods, part of our 'past.'
I have no idea, but I would like to know the energy used by a freight train compared to the number of trucks required to haul the same amount of cargo. Also, a comparison between emissions of trucks vs. trains and the cost of maintaining rail lines vs. tarmac roads (given all the truck traffic).
Back to your posting, mindmeld: It is my hope that places like India do not go the way of places like my example and place additional emphasis on road infrastructure at the expense of their extensive railroad system. This, unfortunately, would require a mind-set change. People in developing countries see or hear about what we have and want it for themselves, as their financial situation permits.
Copying a reply I made to John's Tata Motors (India) posting on the other thread yesterday:
"Hyundai Motor Co. (005380 KS), South Korea's largest automaker, rose 3,800 won, or 6 percent, to 67,200, its largest jump since June 2006. Global auto sales will rise to a record 71.8 million vehicles next year, the Yonhap News said, citing a report by Hyundai Motor Co., on strong demand in developing nations such as China, India and Russia. The Hyundai Motor report did not give a comparative figure for this year's estimate, the news agency said."
bloomberg.com
That's a heck of a lot of additional fuel needs, associated environmental pollution, and monies for road maintenance and building.
BTW, I do not live in Sullivan County, but I went to camp there when a child. I find it a magical place, enjoy eating at the few restaurants there, but could never live there--too remote.
Lynn |
