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We still very much use freight trains. But they don't go everywhere, and managing a network of train traffic has its own overhead. Each car in a train has to go

We still very much use freight trains. But they don't go everywhere, and managing a network of train traffic has its own overhead. Each car in a train has to go to the same place. To transfer to another train to take a different sub-route takes time. Then, you also have to unload the payload at the destination and still complete the journey with a truck.

WalterBright 6y ago
The load/unload should be as simple as picking up the semi (sans the cab) and putting it onto a flatcar.
- chrisco255 6y ago
  It's never that simple. Freight trains are extremely long and have to have massive yards to park in. Then you have to shuffle them around to get to the car you need. Then you have to have the Semi Truck in a position that a crane can access to mount the payload. It's a very difficult problem to solve at scale and certainly not economical for every city in America.
  - WalterBright 6y ago
    This is not a complex problem, as the rail yard is a completely controlled environment. It is not a major engineering problem to have the train move slowly past a point where a crane can pick off the trailer and put it on a tug. The tug then parks the trailer somewhere in the yard. When the truck shows up, the tug retrieves the trailer and brings it to the truck. Think of a moving assembly line. It's the same thing. It doesn't have to be economical for every city. It can be done profitably in an incremental manner, starting with the highest volume lines.
    - chrisco255 6y ago
      Yes it is. Your long slow moving train is now blocking other long trains from passing (since rails are rarely two way). Nevermind that the train would have to stop entirely and lose all the energy efficiency in the process). Constructing new rails is expensive and difficult since rails have to be nearly level with very low grade. You are handwaving about something you know nothing about and I suggest you read more into civil engineering, civil construction, and rail construction. Union Pacific will spend billions just to get roads reconstructed to move under or over train tracks so they can save a couple minutes on a delivery route. It's extremely difficult to build roads around or near freight rails because of these constraints and vice versa. Have you even compared a map of the freight rail lines in existence and their current stopping points versus the interstate and US highway system?
      - WalterBright 6y ago
        Warehouses used to be built with rail spurs going to them. If people could do it 200 years ago, I don't see why this is an impossibility today. I've lived in the Seattle area for decades. They regularly pull up tracks and destroy the right-of-way so they can fail at mass transit. I've heard all their excuses for doing this madness.

WalterBright 6y ago

The load/unload should be as simple as picking up the semi (sans the cab) and putting it onto a flatcar.

chrisco255 6y ago
It's never that simple. Freight trains are extremely long and have to have massive yards to park in. Then you have to shuffle them around to get to the car you need. Then you have to have the Semi Truck in a position that a crane can access to mount the payload. It's a very difficult problem to solve at scale and certainly not economical for every city in America.
- WalterBright 6y ago
  This is not a complex problem, as the rail yard is a completely controlled environment. It is not a major engineering problem to have the train move slowly past a point where a crane can pick off the trailer and put it on a tug. The tug then parks the trailer somewhere in the yard. When the truck shows up, the tug retrieves the trailer and brings it to the truck. Think of a moving assembly line. It's the same thing. It doesn't have to be economical for every city. It can be done profitably in an incremental manner, starting with the highest volume lines.
  - chrisco255 6y ago
    Yes it is. Your long slow moving train is now blocking other long trains from passing (since rails are rarely two way). Nevermind that the train would have to stop entirely and lose all the energy efficiency in the process). Constructing new rails is expensive and difficult since rails have to be nearly level with very low grade. You are handwaving about something you know nothing about and I suggest you read more into civil engineering, civil construction, and rail construction. Union Pacific will spend billions just to get roads reconstructed to move under or over train tracks so they can save a couple minutes on a delivery route. It's extremely difficult to build roads around or near freight rails because of these constraints and vice versa. Have you even compared a map of the freight rail lines in existence and their current stopping points versus the interstate and US highway system?
    - WalterBright 6y ago
      Warehouses used to be built with rail spurs going to them. If people could do it 200 years ago, I don't see why this is an impossibility today. I've lived in the Seattle area for decades. They regularly pull up tracks and destroy the right-of-way so they can fail at mass transit. I've heard all their excuses for doing this madness.