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Moving goods by electricity
Posted 15 July 2008 in

Electrifying the U.S. freight rail system makes economic and national security sense, and may be more feasible than you think. A new proposal explores just what it would mean --and what it would take-- to shift the bulk of the U.S. freight system from oil to electricity in a relatively short amount of time.

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Summary: 

Electrifying the U.S. freight rail system makes economic and national security sense, and may be more feasible than you think. A new proposal explores just what it would mean --and what it would take-- to shift the bulk of the U.S. freight system from oil to electricity in a relatively short amount of time.

We've posted quite a bit in the last year about the benefits of moving people and freight by electricity instead of by oil. One of my favorite ideas was the cargo tram project in Amsterdam, a old concept that has some recent history in Dresden and some other cities.

Metra Electric 703
An electric rail commuter car in Chicago sits next to an non-electric rail freight train loaded with wind turbine parts.

My new favorite, however, is an informal proposal on TheOilDrum.com by New Orleans engineer Alan Drake to electrify the U.S. freight rail network. While rail electrification has proven its benefits in Europe for decades, it's never really caught on in the U.S. except for a brief surge of interest during the oil crises of the 1970s. Drake makes a convincing argument --especially on economic and national security grounds-- that national rail electrification is the single best bet for the U.S. to drastically reduce its oil dependence as we move into the post- peak oil world.

The famously opinionated (and informed) readers of The Oil Drum largely seem to agree. Check it out for yourself -- and tells us what you think about it in the Comments section below.

»  A synergistic set of solutions to multiple issues focused on Electrified Railroads by Alan Drake, July 2008.

Image credit: Metra Electric 703 by kedziers (via flickr.com)

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