this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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Are trains and railroad solarpunkable? (slrpnk.net)
submitted 1 year ago by francisco@slrpnk.net to c/climate@slrpnk.net
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A lot of people point to trains efficiency as a way forward to minimize the environmental impact of the transportation sector. But are trains and railroad solarpunkable? Or is it just another "all eggs in the same basket" industry?

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[โ€“] francisco@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did not know that. Thanks for the info.

It still surprises me that a 300km train ticket costs about the same per person as taking a car with 2 people paying fuel and highway tolls. A 600 seat optimized 'car' on a dedicated low friction track should be, maybe, 100x cheaper.

[โ€“] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago

In Kazahkstan you can get 1329km train journey for $18.40. That is not uncommon in poorer countries at all to be around $2 for 100km. So I presume it is higher wages. At the same time energy is incredibly cheap today, so the optimization with low friction does not help much.