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I remember a hitchhiking ride in France with a man working in the building and infrastructure industry telling me about these figures, and the intense lobbying

I remember a hitchhiking ride in France with a man working in the building and infrastructure industry telling me about these figures, and the intense lobbying against transporting goods on rails...

dukoid 7y ago
In France the rubber tyre lobby is so strong, the got them on subway cars. No joke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-tyred_metro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-tyred_metro
- forkexec 7y ago
  At Michelin, we're more than just Green guides, we put our tires on the subway cars and encourage protesters to use ours for all their tire fire needs.
  - tomohawk 7y ago
    Maybe the study should also take into account this use of tyres.
- pyrale 7y ago
  The subway has tires for technical reasons. Stations in the Paris subway are close enough that better acceleration times have a significant impact on travel time and peak-hour capacity.
  - derefr 7y ago
    If they were willing to retool, you’d think they’d just go with a maglev monorail design. Those have the capacity for the instantaneous acceleration of a railgun.
    - DFHippie 7y ago
      That would be a pretty rough ride. I wouldn't want to be a straphanger on one of those. The turns would be uncomfortable as well in a railgun railway car.
      - roywiggins 7y ago
        It would also be useless, the stations are so dense that you would barely increase the average speed.
      - derefr 7y ago
        I didn’t mean to suggest you’d use it as a railgun. It just has the capacity for exactly as much torque as you need from it at any given moment.
Sam777666 7y ago
In January there was this report: Microscopic pieces of plastic have been discovered in the most remote locations, from the depths of the ocean to Arctic ice. Another place that plastic is appearing is inside our bodies. We’re breathing microplastic, eating it and drinking plastic-infused water every day.Plastic does not biodegrade. Instead, it breaks down into smaller pieces, and ultimately ends up everywhere, including in the food chain. Pieces that are less than five millimeters in length, around the size of a sesame seed, are called “microplastics.” https://graphics.reuters.com/ENVIRONMENT-PLASTIC/0100B4TF2MQ/index.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social https://graphics.reuters.com/ENVIRONMENT-PLASTIC/0100B4TF2MQ...
hef19898 7y ago
On Germany the best lobby work to put transportation on truck instead of rail is done by DB, German Railroads, with their freight services. Compared to trucking you can easily double lead times, increase costs per ton and decrease trackability and reliability.
- kungtotte 7y ago
  Same thing in Sweden. Lower costs for the customers and higher reliability when you ship by truck means rail is not really a consideration even though it would be better for everyone if it actually worked.

I remember a hitchhiking ride in France with a man working in the building and infrastructure industry telling me about these figures, and the intense lobbying against transporting goods on rails...

dukoid 7y ago

In France the rubber tyre lobby is so strong, the got them on subway cars. No joke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-tyred_metro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-tyred_metro

forkexec 7y ago
At Michelin, we're more than just Green guides, we put our tires on the subway cars and encourage protesters to use ours for all their tire fire needs.
- tomohawk 7y ago
  Maybe the study should also take into account this use of tyres.
pyrale 7y ago
The subway has tires for technical reasons. Stations in the Paris subway are close enough that better acceleration times have a significant impact on travel time and peak-hour capacity.
- derefr 7y ago
  If they were willing to retool, you’d think they’d just go with a maglev monorail design. Those have the capacity for the instantaneous acceleration of a railgun.
  - DFHippie 7y ago
    That would be a pretty rough ride. I wouldn't want to be a straphanger on one of those. The turns would be uncomfortable as well in a railgun railway car.
    - roywiggins 7y ago
      It would also be useless, the stations are so dense that you would barely increase the average speed.
    - derefr 7y ago
      I didn’t mean to suggest you’d use it as a railgun. It just has the capacity for exactly as much torque as you need from it at any given moment.

Sam777666 7y ago

In January there was this report: Microscopic pieces of plastic have been discovered in the most remote locations, from the depths of the ocean to Arctic ice. Another place that plastic is appearing is inside our bodies. We’re breathing microplastic, eating it and drinking plastic-infused water every day.Plastic does not biodegrade. Instead, it breaks down into smaller pieces, and ultimately ends up everywhere, including in the food chain. Pieces that are less than five millimeters in length, around the size of a sesame seed, are called “microplastics.” https://graphics.reuters.com/ENVIRONMENT-PLASTIC/0100B4TF2MQ/index.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social https://graphics.reuters.com/ENVIRONMENT-PLASTIC/0100B4TF2MQ...

hef19898 7y ago

On Germany the best lobby work to put transportation on truck instead of rail is done by DB, German Railroads, with their freight services. Compared to trucking you can easily double lead times, increase costs per ton and decrease trackability and reliability.

kungtotte 7y ago
Same thing in Sweden. Lower costs for the customers and higher reliability when you ship by truck means rail is not really a consideration even though it would be better for everyone if it actually worked.