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If it is battery powered why does it need rails? Why not just use an electric bus?
by ninalanyon 1y ago
If it is battery powered why does it need rails? Why not just use an electric bus?
- tmtvl 1y agoThere's various possible reasons. Less pollution from tire wear and the possibility to lay tracks across grass to create relatively ecological dedicated lines so the carriages don't get stuck in traffic are two options that spring to mind immediately.
- youngtaff 1y agoEfficiency — mainly through lower friction “Thanks to the very low friction between the steel wheel and steel rail, railways can move a load using as little as 15% of the energy that road haulage needs.” Gareth Dennis, How Railways will Fix the Future (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/761930/how-the-railways-will-fix-the-future-by-gareth-dennis/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/761930/how-the-rail...)
- ninalanyon 1y agoEveryone proposing trams says this. None of them provide any numbers. How much more efficient does it have to be to offset the much greater cost of the roadway?
- wongarsu 1y agoIf overhead wires were the only advantage of light rail, why is anyone using light rail instead of trolleybuses? The answer is of course that rails provide major advantages on their own, primarily by allowing vehicles to travel much more efficiently thanks to the low friction of running steel wheels on steel tracks
- chgs 1y agoThey also provide major disadvantages, like a single obstacle or broken down vehicle blocking the entire route.
- thehappypm 1y agoBEVs will become more popular (in my prediction) because they are simpler than diesel, and are self-contained unlike electric trains that depend on external wire systems working, so they will be more reliable.
- erratic_chargi 1y agoIt does make the name kinda ironic, since the batteries will make the tram heavier then a normal one that's powered by overhead wires, so its not 'very light'