Cooperation with the Railroads

OK, so what's the speed of dark?

ailroads are, generally speaking, the most environmentally friendly of all transport systems that man is using at the present, considering that coal-fired engines are hardly in use anymore. Beam traffic systems lend themselves easily to a smooth transfer of travellers and goods to and from trains, considering the fact that the beams can enter train platforms and station buildings without much crowding out of other facilities that are already in existence in such places.

On this page, we outline a scenario for how beam traffic systems could gradually expand, integrate with railroads, and then gradually take over more and more of present railroad funtions. In doing so, we could make now defunct railways, and railways that are losing money profitable once again, but with another technology. The scenario outlined here could be realised within a time span of 50 years.

The properties and competitive situation of the railroad Cooperation between the beam traffic system and the railroad Step 1: in 10 years time Step 2: in 20 years time Step 3: in 30 years time Step 4: in 50 years time

The properties and competitive situation of the Railroad.

ailroads are defined as rails of steel on their own embankments for the purpose of transportation of people and freight. There are usually 2 rails. Railroads can be found both in urban areas, and between cities. In urban areas subways and lokal trains are used (streetcars don't count as railways, since they normally do not have their own embankment). Between urban areas, trains with varying speed limits and distances between stations are used. Trains for transportation of people can be divided into Normal trains, Express trains and High velocity trains with their maximum speeds around 150, 250 and 500 kilometers/hour, respectively. Average speeds is, when due consideration is taken to acceleration, retardation and times at the stations, about half of these maximum speeds. Freight trains are slower than any of these categories. The railways have their drawbacks too, such as: They are typical mass-transit systems, with the accompanying lack of flexibility. Sparks from locked wheels frequently ignite forest fires. The rails tend to buckle in the sun and cause serious derailments. The development of railways has, in the same way as the roadtraffic and streetcars gone through several stages in its development; with horse-, steam-, diesel- and electricity as propellant. The first horsedrawn railroad in Sweden started in 1802. The first steam engines arrived in 1856, and the first diesel- and electrically propelled trains arrived in Sweden around the year 1900. Already before World War II, the larger part of the Swedish railway network been electrified. This had great importance for maintaining traffic in the country during the war, when Sweden had big difficulties importing fossil fuels. The environmentally more friendly railroad is squeezed economically between two not so environmentally-friendly traffic types; road traffic and air transportation. As a rule (which at least applies in Scandinavia), for transports shorter distances than 200 kilometers, road transports are more economical. For transports longer than 500 kilometers air transports would be more economical.

For the curious he efficiency of the Western and Central European railway systems is not much to boast about. The average speed of trains travelling between different countries is reportedly only 17 km/hour (!!). This low speed is not only due to stop at stations, but also to stops at borders between countries, and even between regions in countries. The reason is technical: The electric power is supplied in 5 different voltages, and using different AC/DC-systems There are 4 different track widthsin use 16 different signalling systems Right- and left-side-traffic varies This means that trains have to stop at the borders between these areas; to change engines, passengers and freight have to change cars, and sometimes this is solved i bit more efficient by switching under-carriages of railway cars. A smoother solution is used on the bridge over Oresund, connecting Copenhagen in Denmark with Malmoe in Sweden. Swedish railways use 15 kV, 16 2/3 Hz, Danish railways use 25 kV and 50 Hz. The trains crossing this bridge will have to be adapted to both systems. Across the bridge (and in the adjoining tunnel near Copenhagen) the trains will use the Danish power system. Outside Malmoe, there is a neutral zone, without power supply, where the engines will switch to the other system, while maintaining their speed. Thus, if we leave Eastern Europe aside, we find that the voltages vary: 750 Volts (in for instance Southern England) 1 500 Volts (in for instance Holland) 3 000 Volts (in for instance Southern France) 15 000 Volts (in for instance Italy and Spain) 25 000 Volts (in for instance Portugal and Northern France) The trackwidths (or gauge) are (in millimeters): 1435 mm (in most countries) 1524 mm 1600 mm 1668 mm The practical consequence of this is that the railways in Western Europe are poorly utilized. While road- and sea-carried transports of freight have trippled between the years 1970 and 1999 from about 400 to 1200 (measured in billions of tons of goods times the number of kilometers carried) for each cathegory, rail-carried transports have shrunk from about 300 to 200 billion tons in this period. There are thus 6 times as much freight carried by trucks as by railroad in Western and Central Europe! Within the 15 EU-countries, 73% of all freight is carried by trucks, and only 15% by railroad. For Sweden, this numbers are 63% and 37%, which makes Sweden the EU-country that utilizes its freight-trains the most.

p until the 1930-ies the railroad was the dominating mode of transport in the developed world. Since then, the railroad has gradually lost its competitivenes and consequently its market shares, mostly to the road traffic. More and more railroads have been disbanded. The largest source of income is the goods transports. But the railway is encumbered with transshipments of goods between trucks, warehouses and railroad cars. The railroad is also encumbered by time-consuming redistribution of freight cars within the trainsets on large marshalling yards. In order to save as much as possible of the remaining railroad traffic, in many countries a lot of tax money is invested in fast trains and in regional subsidies. In Sweden, the state-owned railway has been subject to de-regulation, where one company owns and maintains the railroad tracks, and several competing companies, among them the state-owned "SJ", operate the traffic. The hopes are that transportation of people and goods will be gradually transferred to the more environmentally-friendly railway, at least within those distances that are competitive. But representatives for the economically stronger traffic types, road- and air transport, are not interested. They want a free market economy (without economical restraints in order to recompense the community for their climate-, environmental- and accident costs) which will further reduce the market share of the railway.

or every ton of goods being freighted one kilometer on truck with trailer, the state in most Western countries provides a subsidy of taxpayers' money of about one US cent. The subsidies for railway transportation is usually far less; In Sweden it´s one tenth of a US cent. These numbers have been calculated from the yearly costs that noise, air pollution, traffic, accidents, operation and maintenace give rise to. These are costs that are not covered by taxes, fees and the like, which the community thus have to pay for. This creates, according to the investigation, a competitive disadvantage for the railway totalling US $ 200 million a year as compared to the trucking costs.

The investigators conclude that this situation is unreasonable, if the railway is ever going to hold its own against the trucking industry. The report from this investigation also calculates how much the community would gain from letting 30 percent of the long-haul goods transports were transferred from truck to train, and also if 10 percent of all travells by private cars were done by train. The yearly savings from this for Sweden would then amount to US $ 550 million, the report maintains. A lot fewer people would get killed and injured in traffic accidents, pollution would be reduced and the crowding on the highways would likewise be reduced.

A switch from cars to trains would also give huge savings in energy consumption! We could use the trains a lot more without it showing up on the total energy consumption of the country. We would be able to travel 70 percent more with trains and freight 30 percent more goods on trains without any noticeable increase in energy consumption. For these percentages to be entirely true, we would have to provide for more efficient train transports, meaning newer trains and better administrative routines, especially between various national railway companies. Today's traffic models underestimate the usefulness of railway investments, the investigation concludes.

n the co-operation with the railroad, the development of the beam traffic system could be regarded as following four consecutive steps. These steps could be commenced in 10, 20, 30 and 50 years time, respectively.	As time goes by, the railroads will be complemented with more environmentally friendly technology, which could reclaim the shorter road intervals, and to move the upper limit outwards. In other words, it could in the future, with right technology, be profitable to haul goods both over shorter distances (where trucking is more profitable today) and ovver longer distances (where air transport is faster).

he beam system could start supplying the railroad with considerably more passengers and tons of goods from the urban areas. The travelers could be picked up and put down on the train platforms, where the platform roofs have been rebuilt to accomodate the beams. The freight can be put down and picked up directly on the desired freight cars. These cars could, as is shown in the illustration, also enter the station building. In the upper part of the illustration there is a beam reserved for cars waiting to be called into service.

No time-consuming car trips are needed to reach the railway stations. No parking areas on scarce real estate has to be paid for by high parking rates, in the vicinity of the stations. No long walking distances with heavy luggage has to be done between subway stations or parking lots and the railway station. Nor is any costly and time-consuming truck transports required through the streets with freight. No driving with empty trucks back to the freight terminal. No costly and time-consuming re-loading has to be done between trucks, goods depots and trains.

As a consequence, new and bigger traffic flows are created for the railroad, which in turn will contribute to lowering the necessary tax subsidies and help finance purchases of modern railway cars and high-velocity trains.

Step 2: in 20 years time

ow the beam traffic system could be extended to places where there is already railroads. The priority should be given to inject new life into routes where there is unprofitable stretches of railway or where traffic has already been disbanded. Communities which once thrived because of the railroad could spring into renewed life. It would also make life easier to the multitude of people who want to flee city life, but still need to go to the city every now and then.

Double-decker trains Double-decker trains have been around for a long time, and new models are still being built. An exciting way of making use of these trains is shown in the figure below. The trains could be equipped with doors on both levels, and passengers that are goin to change to beamcars at the next stop would use the upper doors when dismounting. The station would likewise be equipped with two platforms, and the upper platform would thus serve the beamcars, which then would not need to be equipped with elevators. Likewise, passengers changing from beamcars to trains could enter the trains using the upper doors.

Step 3: in 30 years time

ow the railway can be completmented with beam traffic on long distances. This step will arrive when it is more economically advantageous to run beam vehicles with magnetic levitation instead of rubber wheels, and linear propulsion instead of rotating motors. Then the beam vehicles will run at speeds up to 500 km/hour. Stopping at most stations won't be needed, as the individual vehicles will only handle passengers		and freight that are going to a special final destination. Compared to air transport, the excessively long waiting times customary at modern airports and travelling times to and from airport terminals will not be needed. In such a situation it will be doubtful whether it pays to use air travel on such relatively short routes as Paris - London or Washington D.C. - New York (or, for that matter, Stockholm - Malmoe or Stockholm - Lulea).

Step 4: in 50 years time

n the long run, the beam traffic system could probably replace some air traffic routes, using transparent plastic tunnels containing thin air which moves along with the cars (like the old-time

pneumatic dispatch tube systems in offices and factories). This would be a great boon to the environment. The pollution from today's jet aircraft stays in the upper atmosphere for years.