Why US Railroads should Electrify their Mainlines 

@alan Fisher....the main problem is that you don't understand the realities of railroad electrification. I can explain them if you wish.

@@JugSouthgate Oh yes, please show us your point of view !

overhead wire is a maintainer nightmare...and electric locos are half the weight of current freight engines and the tractive effort thereby is garbage vs what is needed to work the freight traffic now. this is not viable for the railroads. current us freight ops are running 390 +/- car trains as an example here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MSov41tux2k.html they had to use 2 locos of the most modern electric kind to haul a pittance of 22 cars of ore. 2 of our locos would have yanked 100. also you can not run doublestack container intermodal cars under that wire or oversize objects that need rail transport. sure you can call out desil's as bad and all that , but you can not say electrics are better without providing a matching level replacement. and furthermore passenger rail traffic is not a thing in the US and has not been since Amtrak Had! to take it up when the railroads were dumping the service because it was a black hole in the ledger book, because cheap gas and cars. Furthermore electric rights of way need a 50% increase in width to prevent shorting, and just how many fuel powered power generation plants need to be built to support such a project? and OMG skyline! we can not have overhead wire everywhere!! Sue them for our skyline! Sue and or block construction constantly on enviromentalist points, which in most respects are garbage because they only care about talking points and not the sum of the whole that is needed to fix what they demand to be done which in most cases is brought up for Political agendas not because they give a shit.... otherwise you are talking out your ass.

@@irondarknessdarkness8900 Cut the train weight and you can go faster. Maintain the lines in good conditions. The overhead wire is not a problem for doublestack containers , it’s a question of how high you hang them. This have to be the same for all states,all lines . Your argument,increase the width by 50%, is just Nonsense ! Electric Locomotives are much more efficient than Diesel, more powerful for take off too. Why do you want me to watch the video? This is not an American train ! See this instead 68 Cars 1 Loco ; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-shikK1PdE_o.html And if You still believe Electricity is only made by fuel You stayed Yesterday! In Europe Germany and Austria use the “Green Current” only. Maintaining seems to be the mayor rail problem in the US...sooooo many derailments and bridge collapses. The longest train line of the world, 9288 km /5594 mls IS electrified , even if it run 800 miles through forests with no human presence... If you want you can !

@@aoilpe doublestack intermodal will not fit under the wire nor will the pantograph reach...to say nothing of oversize rail transport objects. furtheremore cutting train weights over here is a non starter idea, trainpower vs speed is balanced out to keep it moving uphill at maximum tonnage, Us railroads are not passenger oriented in any respect,nor do we try to push trains uphill like a sports car because it is wastefull vs how much gets moved. furthermore EU does not get the kinds of severe storms like we do , do you know what tornados do to overhead wire? it makes a rats nest of it.,as am example ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2SbQ1hbrLLA.html&t and this is how you really move the tonnage..iron ore train to the furnaces ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nACvV8jX7-o.html and this is how you move the coal ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yadqgLBiO00.html

It's not. Oil lobbyists want a fuel to sell. The trouble is the Government is basically run by a corporate cartel

A lot of them were electrified, it was all torn down when Amtrak took over.

@@joeynova3550 Yes Amtrak controlled the power generation. In the 70s Santa Fé looked at electrification. An electricity provider said to Santa Fé's president "You could run your trains at night". Legislation appears to prevent private rail companies owning the generation side which in my view is madness. There is Method in the Madness though☹️

@@Isochest Companies running public transit makes no sense. Public transit should be as efficient and usable for the public as possible. A private company has an owner, it has a profit motive, an interest opposed to the public's wellbeing (essentially, charge as much as possible and spend as little as possible on the system while still keeping ridership). A public utility however has no incentive other than to make people happy.

@@l.u.c.a.s. A public utility has the purpose of improving everyone's quality of life and benefitting society by allowing them opportunities. Making people happy is just a nice side effect.

Dont know about Netherlands but in Czech Republic or in Russia for that matter long distance trains have locomotive change every so often because the loco unit is bound to some “sector” and cannot travel cross country, another reason for locomotive change in Russia is the network is subdivided to different currents, part of the network is DC another part is AC and most of the locos are not designed for dual current usage. So even if the network is electrified you still have stops of 15-20 min for loco change. Now for Russia another advantage of 30 min stop is that people can get out of train to buy products in the station during long trips. When it comes to feeder service (i assume that’s what you were talking about) then its pretty similar, local trains would arrive 5-10 mins before the regional would depart to allow people to catch it.

Yeah the only case I can think of where they change locomotives is on cross border night trains, where they also often reshuffle the cars over night to be able to serve multiple destinations with the same train.

@@dijikstra8 yep they do it here, the Prague-Warsaw (day and night) get loco change near the borders. On the other hand Austrian OBB Railjet Vienna-Prague service is done by same Austrian loco and crew without a change, kinda like the Eurostar that dont make equipment change.

That’s just false. All across Europe intercity trains switch locomotives because of their propulsion or track/loading gauge. The Netherlands are a tiny country and most trains that run in it are regional. No comparison at sll.

@@blueskiesflyer Vienna-Prague is also just 4 hours.

Gets better every time

Man I literally can't think of a more important thing. Like why the fuck do we even have society if we don't have trains.

Ok but who's going to pay for it? You?

@@blitzkrieg634 maybe the government

@@trilingualfudge7307 not the government's job Everything they run is ran like shit Keep shit private and things stay high quality

@@blitzkrieg634 Then end the government’s current practice of subsidizing cars, gas, and automobile infrastructure. Trains are competing in an extreme, distorted transportation market.

As if spending all of that money to upgrade the tracks to electricity would save the planet. Better to use diesel/battery hybrid locomotives than spend far too much money electrifying the tracks....

Catenary electric is cheaper for main corridors, and rapid freight rail is the only mature long haul transport alternative to long haul trucking that won't kill the planet.

@@ronclark9724 WTF would that accomplish?

@@PistonAvatarGuy close to nothing

@@ronclark9724 hybrids is basically a mix of diesel and electric and it's pretty impractical better use full electric

But what if the freight companies didn't own the track/land and instead leased it from the government? Aka nationalization, that's the only way that I see it fully happening. Otherwise it'll sporadically happen in different places for awhile.

@@alanthefisher yes yes yes we need the government to step in, the American rail system is an embarrassment

@@Giruno56 You'll be really happy to hear that my next video coming out is going to be on RR nationalization. It should be finished within a week.

@@alanthefisher Amazing! Im looking forward to it

@@Giruno56 how an embarassment? Freight works just fine and we use jet aircraft to get between cities because they are far apart.

The plain and simple fact was that once diesel fuel prices stabilized in the early 1980s it wasn't cost-effective for Conrail to continue electric freight operations. So they went all-diesel.

What does electrification have to do with speed?

@@awsomevideoperson It's mostly an economic problem. Diesel trains need a lot of fuel to drive at high speeds (2 times the speed requires 4 times the energy) which means they have to carry more fuel. Making the whole issue worse. It's possible to diesel trains at about the same speed as electric trains it's not economical to do so.

​@@awsomevideoperson There are strong diesel electic engines, but they are all close to 200t which makes them not capable of high speeds. There are fast diesel electric engines in the 100t range, but they are usually not strong enough for heavy freight trains. Take the example of a Siemens Vectron, which is a somewhat common electric locomotive. 6.4MW at less than 100t. More power than a 250t beast like the Union Pacific Centennial.

​@bill hammond iii The most common version weights 90t or 198.000 pounds.

@glorygeek Elecric trains and that includes heavy freight trains accelerate faster. That's more capacity at a stroke

Australia. South America. Most freight trains I've seen in Europe are diesel, even under wire.

@@lowercherty where in Europe, UK yes, the rest of Europe mostly use electric locomotives

@@icheckered6837 off the main lines in Finland, Norway, Nethdrlands, Germany, Russia, Baltics, Spain, Portugal. I haven't had the pleasure of seeing freight operations in other countries.

And what would power the ERG (electrified railway grid)? In Europe, it has been LNG and nuclear power for the most part - and both are now under a cloud. The same is true of Asia - even Japan and the PRC; again - both are under a cloud. (In fact, the PRC is using its exemption from the PCA to adopt *coal* power plants.)

​@@lowercherty Germany's freight trains certainly seem to mostly be electric. Look at any mainline, almost every freight train is electric. Sure, at the ends of the net, you see diesel - mostly because Germany has made some bad decisions about electrifying those and keeping them electrified. This is why there's some interest in dual-mode locomotives of various kinds, and why regional passenger networks are starting to invest in hydrogen and battery trains. Oh, and why the current list of train projects includes a number of electrification projects.

You have the right idea, all diesel trains actually have electric motors. I would not take much to have ability to choose power source. A device like the switch on backup generators.

@@tonyromano6220 Pretty much exactly what the Hitachi Class 800 and Steadler Flirt Bi-Modal trains in the UK do. They usually switch modes at the station nearest where the electrified lines start/end, takes just a few minutes and most passengers don't notice the transition.

@@kevinh96 And the class 800 can also change on the move! This always happens when I get the GWR from Reading to Oxford

Yes. Focus on some key infrastructure, expand some commuter electrification, invest in dual-mode trains... I don't see a massive electrification happen in the US soon, though.

The problem with batteries is they are _terrible_ uphill and under load.

Both projects are related to the new California HSR... What started ten years ago as a $30 billion 500 miles HSR has already reached $100 billion which has grown to 700 plus miles... And the price is growing $10 billion every year...

@@ronclark9724 and voters are saying no but the gov don't care..

California HSR is a boondoggle. Ron Clark is on point.

CA HSR is a waste of money and time. It’s a high speed fail and would people really want to use that? I think not. Caltrain, on the other hand, even if the electric project is complete for them, some of their diesels will still operate to Gilroy since that segment of track is owned by UP and not Caltrain.

@@-SkyCat- If the voters say no to HSR, then this High Speed Fail project should not have happened but yes GN don’t care.

Lmao. I misread Austria as Australia and was about to write a very strongly-worded reply. Phew.

Why is that surprising? Why is it better to have the diesel generator sitting on the side of the tracks, instead being driven by coal or natural gas. Then sending power over a glorified extension cord, to the engine vs just putting the diesel generator on the train itself? All electrification does is sweep the source of that electric power under the rug while incurring significant transmission losses. Against steam I could see it making sense. Against diesel-electric it seems like a giant waste of time and money.

@@Crosshair84 It's better to use hydropower, geothermal, and nuclear power on account of no air pollution.

​@@Crosshair84but with electric you can use hydropower, nuclear, solar, Wind, you get the idea. a diesel locomotive can only burn diesel, and maybe Biodiesel, while electric can use all these different methodes of power supply. electric is the future.

Yep

Strange, last I checked, Denmark was nowhere near electrifying all its railways. Not even 50% last I checked.

Indonesia is just an Islamic version of the USA

@@qjtvaddict But with islands.

The Netherlands really should do something with you’re guys infrastructure of railroads

It's "since" in this case, not "until". Forgive me if you don't care, I'm not trying to be a grammar Nazi, just trying to help improve your English skills.

Jaman Suharto mana ada kemajuan

Electrifying only the most used lines would bring that cost down quite a bit, no need to electrify every single mile out there right away

@@herlescraft Although electrifying everything is way better than leaving some parts nonelectrified due to standardisation.

...Except the tracks and ROW are privately owned. The railroads are already deferring maintenance on power, cars and trackage, furloughing and letting go employees and doing everything else they can to make as much money for the shareholders as possible so I don't see them spending anything on electrification. The government won't spend tax dollars on this, either and that's a good thing.

It is obviously not a money problem. We Indians went from 37% electrification to 100% electrification within a decade despite our financial constraints. USA has no excuse.

Y e s

Show me the 100 to , 8600 HP passenger diesel in the US. While I’m waiting for you to find it, I WON’T be waiting for my Keystone train to accelerate to 110 mph faster than a diesel can get to 50. The fact is, if you want to get there fast, a diesel that puts 3500 hp to the tracks (on a good day), won’t cut it. Some of us want to get there. I guess if moving containers at 20mph is more important, I can just take the Interstate instead…

Stop it with your sense and logic!

@@philipnasadowski1060 If you want to get there fast, as a passenger, build your own rail tracks. Otherwise, stop yapping. Yes, moving containers is FAR more important to the nation. Try looking past yourself for a change!

Designated third rail electrified corridors can be created for routes that routinely carry oversized freight.

@@erkinalp Why? Third rail is infinitely more complex than catenary power and is unneeded to power freight trains as only the locomotive needs power, not the cars.

Easiest way would be buy some oldish european and modify them.

Developed? Developing nation India, the one that Westerners love to mock, is ahead of them ALL and has gone from 37% electrification of Railways in 2014 to 100% in 2024, just within one decade. Already, Indian trains carry 2.5X to 3X more freight than entire EU combined (0.3 Trillion ton-kilometers for EU vs 0.9 Trillion ton-km for India). And 43% of India's electricity generation capacity is already from non-fossil fuel sources. Goal is 500 GW of renewable electric generation capacity in India by 2030, which is more than the total generation capacity of India today (450 GW). Westerners love to talk big on climate action, yet India is the one ranked the highest among all G-20 nations in this sphere, as mentioned in the Climate Change Performance Index 2023 released by the Germans.

Even if you use all the diesel the locomotives would use in a central powerplant it would still be more efficient... For 2 big reasons: - energy recoup on breaking - higher efficiency on big centralized plants

thats what im saying

Not Eurosprinter, but Vectron! Eurosprinter is history.

The Pennsylvania Railroad electrified a considerable part of their system in the 1930s. Their system was based on the New Haven system (11 kV 25 Hz) and was designed for freight, intercity passenger and commuter trains. The PRR's goal was to electrify all their main lines and many of their branch lines. However. WW2 put an end to their plans due to shortages of steel, copper, and workers. When the war ended, the PRR was busy catching up on maintenance that had been deferred during the war.

The absolutely incomprehensible de-electrification of the Milwaukee Road is one of the stupidest moves in a long history of stupid moves.

@@daniellewis1789 It's not incomprehensible at all, if one understands what the Milwaukee Road was up against at the time. The railroad was going bankrupt, and the electrification was old and needed serious work. The electric locomotives were reaching end of life as well.

@@JugSouthgate 1. The deferred maintenance on their most profitable routes is part of the problem, and 2. Scrapping their competitive advantage sure worked out well for 'em.

@@daniellewis1789 Spot on. Electric locos are lighter on track and using diesels line speed and capacity halved and maintenance costs doubled. Mergers were a common reason for scrapping electrification in the US. One day there will be a mad scramble to electrify but the disaster that triggers it hasn't happened yet

We don't even need to wait for x thing to exist could start whenever people want to. And the cost for dedicated locomotives could be held off since diesel trains can run on cantanery track like normal.

well are there electric trucks around? electric trucks getting power from overhead wires like an electric train? Would be on the road, but still I don't or hardly see any of that in the US, whereas they're testing and actually using them in parts of Europe.

change da rules

@@anincompetentmoron8497 What rules, dude?

Amtrak could potentially add its own trackage along busy routes, if electrical infrastructure was in place, running higher speed services, but that’s an investment Amtrak just can’t afford.

@@jirky015 the rules that say that freight has priority over passenger.

@@Jehty_ The freight carriers own the tracks and right of way.

no the MILW was not the lowest cost . the Gn had lower cost. the MILW had the highest cost. how young are you. If Milw so good then why did no one buy it

You could not have written anything more wrong... There is a reason why the Milwaukee Road went bankrupt... There is a reason why the Great Northern was the only railroad that never went bankrupt... Please learn why...

@@ronclark9724 wrong. can you not think. Milw had 4 2% plus grades. the gn had marias pass that had a lot lower grades then saint paul pass. the gn only need to changd crews 4 times to go 800 mies. The Milw need to change crews 8 times to go 800 miles. the Mile also has very short passing sidings and very little CTC. the GN has Long passing sidings and lots of CTC. the MILW cound not handle the 16000 ft trains that run on the ex Gn. Yes the MILW went bankrupt 3 times. the Gn never had any land grants

Forget it! Like I mentioned before, it's never going to happen!!!! For Example: the Cost of installing the overhead Wires. The Cost of installing Electric Substations and maintain them. The Electric Locomotives being under power. Plus the clearance for the Double Stack Trains! This Goes with the same scenario with Amtrak Auto Train. If a Person in New York wants to Put their Car on Amtrak Auto Train, They would have to Drive to Washington DC. Why, Low On the overhead Wires on the Northeast Corridor!!! Trust me, It's not going to work. Not To Mention, when they mentioned Clean air in which is Always a Good thing. But you need fossil fuel to generate electricity!!!!

@@josephscarfo5972 In India and China, they run electric double stack trains- that's the easiest problem to fix, all you need is a higher wire and a longer pantograph. Electric locomotives are far more powerful than diesel electrics, since they don't need to haul their power generation equipment with them. You also don't need fossil fuels to generate electricity, and even if you do, it's still more efficient than a diesel electric locomotive.

How much of the rail lines were built by the British? I’m curious

@@sc1338 Probs a good chunk hehe. Meanwhile us brits only have about 1/3rd of our track full on electric Most of it being trunk mainline express routes

@@davidty2006 Aren't Mainlines all that's left after Beaching II?

@@sc1338 those were not build by british

@@davidty2006 sorry all of that tracks were build by indian labor indian money and most of the times indians not even allowed on trains , it was used to carry all the loot to the ports , and that too was built 9 times the cost of anywhere in the world, and we ourselves has expanded it since independence don't try to act you are some kind of higher white being who came to develop us

Flawed logic. Eventually the electricity will have to come from non-fossil fuel sources, no? Whenever that happens, will you wait till then to start the electrification? In India, only around 43% of our installed electricity capacity is from non-fossil fuel sources. Yet that did not stop us from going 100% electric in our Railways, even though barely a decade ago we were at 37%.

You mean stole the design...

Like half of east block used electric locomotives build in Czechoslovakia.

Ytp America makes electric trains but switches to something more efficient, cost saving, maintenance saving, economical and safer, like per sayyyy diesel locomotives? Lol

@@mamarussellthepie3995 Diesel Locomotives being cheaper to maintain? That's a good Joke.

Bro 100% electrification by 2024

It is mid-2024 and it is already 97% as per this month's official report.

Why should the railroads spend the hundred of billions to increase railroad speeds when they are quite happy going the speed they are presently? None desire to file for bankruptcy anytime soon.

@@ronclark9724 Or spend millions on "green" options when there's a more cost-efficient option available already?

@@ronclark9724 Because this perfect solution for tiny, dense countries (that barely move any freight) must be the right solution for us, right? ...Right?

General Motors was profit-hungry, that's why.

nuclear power maybe

@@blu.e5253 Only a small percentage of Nuclear Power contributes to the overall US energy generational load, I believe I read is was less than 10%

@@blu.e5253 Per the US Energy Information Administration the number is closer to 9% Please see attached article for clarifications. www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/data-and-statistics.php

@@caseystein9021 Nope nope. Nuclear makes up 18.9%, Fossile fuels 60.8% and Renewables 20.1%. And yes your armgument is true if the US was to keep using Fossile fuels as strongly as they are now, which regarding climate change will not happen. Whith the shift to renewable energy trains will make more and more sense. Think into the future instead of thinking like an American ;).

WTF!? Your comment just made me look it up, I had no idea that USA did not have a single national synchronous grid. Are you guys planning to fix this? I mean, we got HVDC tech now.....shouldn't be too difficult, especially for you rich folks of the developed world.

-You forgot the "/s" at the end, homie.-

This.

I bet America could do it in half that time with its superior technology and wealth of resources.

@@FancyUnicorn In reality no due to lazyness of western workers in general.

@@davidty2006 and the willingness of the companies involved to put the greater good aside and line their pockets with government cash

And it happened under a tyrannical government that enslaved its populace.

Hiiiiii from Graz

@@lea-mariebrunhofer8612 Hi from Wels

Good on Austria. It will be the third country after Switzerland and India to have 100% electric railways.

Take a look at India. Dedicated freight corridors with electrification high enough to accommodate double stacked freight trains.

and where is the Electricity going to come from. the Us is very Short on Megawatts

India has double stack container trains with tall pantos running at 100 kmph on dedicated lines.

Overhead. Third rail DC at 750V can't carry the power needed for a 6400+ kW train. You need overhead 15/25kV AC for that.

Current Diesel Locomotives can be converted to electric without totally replacing it

It is

They do a lot more than change the locomotive. It's a crew change point, various supplies are replenished, plus lots of people getting on and off. What does a litre of gasoline cost in Switzerland?

@@JugSouthgate Without taxes 0,35 euros , with taxes 1,54.- /1.63.- for 1 L. Europe is rich in water power... In 10 minutes you could change loco and Store food and drinks as well ... they do it every day here. Learn a little bit about SBB and the integrated timetable from wiki... The Best Train system of the world ...(except Japan )

@@aoilpe Here in USA the current price where I live is about US$2.59/gallon with taxes. That would be about 0,56 euros per litre. Or, to turn it around, 1,60 euros per liter works out to about US$7.33 per gallon. Americans have had low low LOW gasoline and diesel prices for a very long time and so the energy efficiency of railroads and electrification have not driven transportation choices.

@@JugSouthgate I hope this will change

Electrification seems as the easiest part of modernization.

@@petrfedor1851 if you think electrification is easy....try doing it.

@@JugSouthgate atleast we don't haft to wait for x new bit of tech to come.

Excluding a few direct NY trains on weekdays and summer weekends, south of LB they never even use the duals on the electric portions of the line. And I am referring to shuttle sets which don’t go north of LB but have a dual anyway. Complete waste if you ask me.

on one hand, yes. On the other, not quite. Driving on the autobahn the last several years has been infuriating with how unbelievably many construction sites there are. Practically every city that it skirts around has a years-long construction project, leading to one or two lanes and incredibly slow traffic. It’s a disaster, and German bureaucracy is doing its finest work to make sure it takes as long as possible. On the other hand, at least they’re maintaining the autobahn, and the finished product IS extremely good. Rail infrastructure is also great. Now, if they could only get to internet infrastructure, it’s like everything runs on dial-up in the 21st century…🙄

@@emajossch4442 Here in the US you basically have 50 countries (States). Some maintain there infrastructure better than others. I guess it's about how much money they have in the bank so to speak. High speed rail wouldn't work well cross country. But connecting major cities within states with large populations would be great.

The October Railroad (the one between St. Petersburg and Moscow) uses DC.

@@warmike That’s interesting, do you know what Voltage is used? It’s a long time to think back now, 47 years in a few days from now, but I remember thinking that the OHLE looked like the modern a.c. Type, not like the old 1500V type previously used here.

@@srfurley 3000 V. Also maybe it can be interesting that a few steam locomotives are still used there commercially.

The problem is the enormous capital cost of electrification is all up front. Diesel fuel is pay as you go.

@@JugSouthgate Depending on the system, but wires itself should be quite cheap. And USA can benefit from tradition of RR having their own primary power system feeding actual overhead wire.

You can run diesels on biofuels but I see biofuels has highly problematic, as growing crops for biofuels is energy intensive and competes with food crops, driving up food prices. It might be possible to mitigate these issues if you limit yourself to agricultural byproducts as a source, but even then you might be taking nutrient-rich compost out of the system that might otherwise fertilize fields.

"Green power" is a LIE. You still need chemicals, toxic metals, petroleum to make "Green power"....

@@ffjsb Well, it's never as simple as "green" or "not green". There's a balancing of factors that has to be done to see whether one source of power (or mix of power sources) is more "green" than another and just because something seems "green" on the surface doesn't make it that way. OTOH one shouldn't go so far as a certain fellow student of mine, who tried to argue that bicycles were just as environmentally damaging as cars because they both are made primarily of steel..

Still more efficient anyway Plus today more renewable resources are in use so its even more effective

just because diesel locos are more effective than cars, doesn't make them super clean and environment-friendly :D Huge tanks which still need to be refilled quite often aren't quite an argument for being clean and effective tbh. Why aren't electric locomotives for freight trains? There are some electric locomotives which are specificly built for freight train usage?! Built and used in central and northern Europe, Russia, China, ...

Google Uzhhorod-Košice broad-gauge track. Build only for freight trains and it´s electrified since begining.

"Electric trains isn't for freight trains"? Someone give this dude a tour of India's dedicated freight corridors.

There are talks about a 350km/h capable high speed line from Moscow to Beijing. The trip would take 2 days and one night though it is questionable if it will go ahead.

@@lars7935 Why would that even be considered unless there were no choice...but there are...airplanes.

@Raj Nadar nah we decided that we don't like them.

And it only took the better part of a century to accomplish lmao

A E S T H E T I C

Could I get more of those sounds?

It's so shocking when you watch a video that you don't remember, you look at the comments and see a comment from yourself. I seriously can't remember that I've watched this video.

@@alanthefisher What's the NAME OF THIS VERSION or where can your very interested community find it? Some of us want to know really hard...

Amazing how this nitwit forgot that fact... Or the fact PennCentral went bankrupt notwithstanding the northeast corridor...

Don't you think it was more the Pacific extension that caused the bankruptcy? I bet Milwaukee Road would have gone bankrupt whether the Pacific extension was electrified or not. They overreached in building the extension and it never generated the traffic they hoped it would. Electric locomotives have lower maintenance costs than diesel and much of the electricity on the Pacific extension came from cheap hydro power.

It's worth saying that the high Energy Price in Germany is caused mostly by Compensation to Nuclear Powerplant Operators, plus Nuclear Powerplant Decomissioning being insanely expensive and paid entirely by Taxpayer Money. And the Story behind the Coal Powerplant Moorburg in Hamburg being decomissioned after just six Years of Operation really puts the Absurdity of German Energy Politics in a Nutshell.

Germans, huh? Your politicians love to virtue signal. Especially to us Indians. Yet India is leaving Germany behind in some things these days. Elect better leaders folks. I don't like seeing the current ones de-industrialized your country and handed it all on a platter to effin Chinese. At least you lot were only virtue-signalling snobs. Chinese are outright enemies to us.

Full electrification of trucks (anything beyond short-haul) sounds massively impractical, given that there is no solid evidence that the necessary battery technologies are ever going to become practical in the real world. Full electrification of cargo ships could be done if small modular reactors (SMR's) take off. However, synthetic carbon-neutral hydrocarbons already exist.

@@electric7487 Full electrification, but could do on most important interstates by running electric power lines like in Sweden ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-27100u7IcII.html

That won't fix the train problem there already is: letting these companies decide when they feel like allowing an Amtrak train never was a good idea. Amtrak/separate federal company should have received all the infrastructure and a bigger budget to maintain it. Freight companies could then lease these tracks under very fair terms, like using a highway. This way Amtrak can figure out exactly what's best when, and can give it's trains priority, leading to less delays

@@Giruno56 what your suggesting sound a little like post nationalized UK rail from the way I remember it when I moved to the US.

@@Giruno56 All of it? The government didn't build ANY of it and thus it would be STEALING. Those freight companies spent BILLIONS of dollars to build those lines and they aren't going to let the government steal them without a fight

And where does the money come from to install electrification?

@@Giruno56 the problem with that approach is that it would require The Government to nationalize and operate over 100,000 miles of track. worth many billions of dollars, that now belong to private companies that are actually making money.

Not really. Amtrak understands if not the stupid public, trains do well economically when they reach their destination in around 3 hours no matter their speed. Beyond 3 hours the airlines win the bulk of the business, even in Europe. Who rides a train to Tel Aviv from Paris or London or Frankfurt? Who rides a train to Moscow from Paris or London or Frankfurt? Very, very few...

@@ronclark9724 Three Hours is a fairly low Number; there are barely any Flight for such short Distances, as 3 Hours means only 300 km (German ICE) to 600 km (French TGV/Spanish AVE). I regularly Travel 1000 km from Flensburg at the German-Danish Border to basel at the German-Swiss Border, which takes about 9 Hours by Train. If I wanted to fly, I would have to take the same Regional Train to Hamburg as when going by Train (2 Hours and actually by far the worst Leg of the Train Journey), but then board the Metro to the Airport instead of the ICE to Basel (30 Minutes), be at the Airport 2 Hours before my Flight, fly 90 Minutes, take one Hour to get out of the Airport and then spend another Hour on the tram Home. Saving just one Hour isn't worth the significantly reduced Comfort, I can carry as much Luggage as I want on the Train without having to pay insane Surcharges, and can be productive for almost the entire Journey. Paris-Moscow is an extreme Example; that's 2,800 km or almost as far as Chicago-Los Angeles. Tel-Aviv is an even more ridiculous Example because there literally is a War on your Way, besides from the Fact that Tel Aviv isn't even in Europe. And Tilting Trains actually are easier as Diesels, or with a third Rail. The Pantograph has to stay put so it doesn't get entangled in the Overhead Wires, so you either need separate Power Cars which doesn't Tilt, or have to tilt the Pantographs relative to the Train Roof. The latter is an additional Point of Failure, and if it fails, it fails very badly by destroying hundreds of Meters of Overhead Wires. Given that Tilting Trains are used on very curvy Lines which usually aren't electrified, this isn't much of a Problem. Although the most widespread German Tilting Trains are so loud inside that the Staff has to wear Earplugs for OSHA Reasons.

nice lie