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Experiencing A (Profitable) National High Speed Rail System
by Thomas L. Atwood, Ph.D. Have
you driven recently on an interstate highway that connects two major
cities? Ever notice how many large, freight-hauling trucks are out
there driving up and down those roads? Each truck is constantly
wearing down eighteen large tires, wearing down the highway, and
wearing down the driver. And let's not forget the fuel consumption
at a time when gasoline and diesel fuel are becoming much more
expensive. Isn't there a better way to haul our freight from city to
city? Try
this on for size. Consider a national high speed rail system
designed specifically for truckers. Don't even think about our
existing railroad system. Our existing rail network is like a web of
2-lane country roads. The new system would be more like a
streamlined, fast-access, high speed interstate highway system. The
best way to describe it is to see it through the eyes of three
truckers. Let's call them Joe, Mike and Don. Joe
and Don both drive for the same company. Mike owns his own rig.
Today, Joe and Don are convoying from Dallas to Chicago. They pick
up their loads at the company freight terminal about an hour before
closing time and drive down to the rail dock. The rail dock is
located close to the interstate highway and the local major freight
routes. It's quick and easy to get there for most of the local
freight haulers. Don follows Joe to the Interstate exit for the rail
dock. The dock area is a sprawling terminal, capable of handling
several hundred trucks per hour. The
Interstate exit dumps the truckers directly into the dock yard. They
drive down the main feeder road, looking for an available dock.
Branching out to either side are the dockways to the individual
docks. At each intersection of a dockway with the main feeder road
is a traffic signal. A green light means there is an empty railcar
waiting for a truck. A yellow light means there is a railcar being
moved into position, but it is not yet ready. A red light tells the
truckers that a truck has already entered this dockway and it has not
yet been moved away from the dock. There is also regularly spaced
electronic signage indicating how many open docks lie ahead. Naturally,
Joe and Don are looking for a green light if they can find one. When
they entered the dock area they passed a computerized display that
told them that there were currently 56 green lights, 20 red ones and
24 yellow ones. If there had been few green lights, they might have
considered taking a yellow dockway, but on this trip, they know that
the greens are plentiful. Joe is savvy. He knows that driving the
length of the feeder road takes time. It's quicker to turn into a
dockway as soon he arrives at the first green one. As soon as he
angles off the feeder road, the light on his chosen dockway changes
from green to red. Don,
on the other hand, was on the phone talking to his wife. So he ended
up driving a ways further down the feeder before he realized that he
should go ahead and turn off into a dockway. After kissing his wife
goodbye over the phone, he picked a green light and turned in. The
dockway intersects the feeder road at an angle, like an interstate
highway on-ramp. Consequently, Joe doesn't have to slow down much to
enter the dockway. But he knows he needs to throttle down, since the
dockway approaches the dock with a slight downhill slope. Joe
knows that he has to carefully match his speed to the steadily
reducing speed limit signs if he doesn't want to end up on the
rails. He gets his speed down to a crawl just as he rolls onto the
docking ramp. As the green light promised, there is his railcar
snuggled into the slip. He drives his rig directly onto the railcar,
inching it forward until the signal light at the far end of the car
turns red. As
he coaxes his rig to a full stop, the automatic latching system
engages his axles. The only requirement for his truck to be able to
be carried by a train was that he had to have the axles fitted with
the latching components. Nevertheless, just for good measure, Joe
sets his brakes. He gathers his overnight bag and hops down out of
the cab. The
railcar is enclosed along both sides and overhead, so that driving
onto it is like driving into a garage bay. It is open on both ends.
When it is coupled to another railcar, a ramp extends between the
two, so that one can walk from railcar to railcar. Likewise,
flexible panels extend from the sides and the roof, so that a train
of coupled railcars is like one long tunnel. This lowers wind
resistance and protects from inclement weather. But Joe's railcar
has not yet been coupled, so each end of this little rolling garage
is still open, so he can see where his car is headed. Joe
walks over to the railcar's control panel and reads the display:
"Insert card", it says. He pulls out a credit card and
inserts it. The display then shows him a menu of destinations and
asks him to select one. He selects Chicago. The display then says
"Please remove card." Joe pockets his credit card and
takes a seat on the bench next to the control panel. He is
already seated before the voice recording finishes saying, "Please
take a seat and fasten your seat belt. Within
a few seconds of his taking his credit card, the car starts moving
away from the dock, gradually accelerating. Joe's railcar gets
switched onto the main switching line that leads to the train make-up
tracks, where the outgoing trains are assembled. A car is moving
about 200 feet ahead of him and another about 300 feet behind,
rolling along the switching line at precisely the same speed as Joe's
own railcar. While in the switch yard, each railcar is paired with
a small, automated switch engine, controlled by the yard's
central computer system. While
Joe is on his phone notifying his receiving clerk in Chicago of his
routing number, his railcar switches off to the side, onto one of the
train make-up tracks. The car gradually slows down, until it eases
to a stop just as the coupling to the next car closes, with a slight
clinking sound. The car's switch engine rapidly pulls back out of the
way. Joe unbuckles and heads forward along the walkway
that automatically extends to connect the railcars. Meanwhile,
another railcar is coupling onto his. Joe
walks from railcar to railcar, passing along the sides of parked trucks and a driver
here and there. He arrives at the passenger coaches at the head of
the train. This is where he will spend his time during the trip to
Chicago. Joe likes to book the overnight runs so he can sleep during
the trips. He walks forward to the sleeper car and identifies
himself to the car's steward. He is shown to his compartment. There
he waits for Don. Don
joins Joe about five minutes later. His railcar coupled onto the
train several cars further to the rear. Don tossed his overnight bag
on the couch and they went forward to the dining car. Over dinner
Don mused to Joe, "Boy, this sure beats the old days, don't it!
And to think this is cheaper than if we drove there ourselves! I
feel like I musta died and gone to heaven." They would
take in a movie before turning in. Before
they could order dinner, the train was already pulling out onto the
main line. This was not your average podunk railroad. The main line
consisted of four separate tracks, not counting sidings. The inside
tracks are speed controlled. All the trains on the inside track
travel at the regulated speed of 150 miles per hour. One track is
for northbound traffic and the other for southbound. The outside
"shuttle" tracks are for the slower, unregulated trains,
and for sidelining any express trains in the event of mechanical
problems. It is imperative to keep the main inside lines clear,
since train follows train in rapid succession. This
is your typical high speed rail line. The route is as straight as
possible between major cities. There are no grade crossings. The
rail line right of way is fenced and secured by cameras and intrusion
alarms. Although most of the locomotives are diesel powered, there
is a planned switchover to electric propulsion, since that can be
driven directly from the electric power grid and doesn't require the
use of fossil fuels. Just your average nuclear, solar or wind power
plant. Joe
knows this route. He has taken it many times before. He knows that
his train will be knocked down and remade in Kansas City, in the
middle of the night as he sleeps. Everyone on his coach is scheduled
all the way through to Chicago, so they don't need to worry about a
train change. When the train from KC to Chicago is made up, it will
contain his coach and his and Don's railcars. Remaking the train
will take about a half hour in KC. When he wakes up in the morning,
his cell phone will have a text message telling him his truck's new
railcar location along the train. It's
fun to watch a train being broken up and remade. It starts as soon
as the train pulls to a stop on one of the make up lines in the
dockyard. A line of tiny switch engines awaits as the train pulls in
front of them. All of a sudden, the railcars start separating and rolling
away. Those that are continuing with this same locomotive pull off
onto a siding to let the others go by on their way out to the main
switching line. Then the continuing cars move back toward the
locomotive and are recoupled, one by one. There is a short
wait as new railcars are added. Adding railcars continues until the
maximum train limit is reached or until the departure time arrives.
A train leaves on time, no matter how many railcars it has. Mike
joined the train to Chicago in Kansas City. He didn't arrive at the
train's make-up point by driving to the Kansas City dockyard. Mike
picked up his load at Topeka, which doesn't have an express dockyard.
Instead, he drove onto his railcar at the Topeka "slow dock".
When he arrived at the slow dock, he had to wait in line. He
watched as trucks were being driven onto their railcars as fast as
the switch engine could move them into place. There were a dozen
loading slips at the slow dock. Half of the slips were for
west-bound traffic and half for east-bound. The
switch engine making up the next east-bound train would bring in a
half-dozen railcars at a time, leaving one off at each slip. Then
the engine would go back to the first car it dropped off and begin
recoupling to the cars, one by one, reforming its little six-car
train, but this time with six trucks loaded. The switch engine would
ferry these cars to the make-up track, where they were coupled onto
the next departing east-bound shuttle train. When
the slow dock was really busy or threatening to run late, sometimes a
second switch engine would be brought in, so that one engine would
deliver six empty railcars while the other engine picked them up as
soon as they were loaded and ready to be taken to the make-up track.
The two switch engines would perform a slow dance, alternating with
each other in leaving off and picking up the railcars. Mike
made the trip to Kansas City aboard the shuttle train, running on the
outside, slow-speed shuttle track. His train made a stop in Lawrence
to add more railcars, before continuing on to the main Kansas City
dock yard. Mike could have driven to the Kansas City dock yard in
less time than it took to go by train. But he took the shuttle
anyway, because letting the engineer do the driving gave him some
time to relax and to catch some sleep in his cab. Mike
slept through the stop in Lawrence, and the fully automated train
change in Kansas City. He woke up to his alarm clock the next
morning as the sun was coming up, about a hundred and fifty miles
from Chicago. That gave him time to go forward to the diner and have
some breakfast. That's where Mike met Joe and Don, who had come forward
from their sleeper car with the same idea. They shared a table
together in the diner, swapping stories about their common
destination and their previous experiences there. As
the express train neared Chicago, it shot past an occasional local
commuter train on the shuttle track. There has been talk about
injecting express commuter trains directly onto the high speed track
from the suburbs, but the infrastructure for safely doing that isn't
in place yet. This is bound to happen, though, since it will open up
suburbs out to 80 or 100 miles from the city center, while keeping
the commuting time reasonable. When there is money to be made,
things eventually get done. Mike
knew a warehouse manager who took his family on an express passenger
trip to Boston to visit relatives. He couldn't get over how they
have office cars, so that business people can work during their
intercity trips. Even though a business trip on the train takes
longer than flying, you avoid most of the hassle and wasted time.
The ride is pleasant and uncrowded. And you can rent an office to
work in on the way. Mike's friend said he saw one businessman who
took his whole office staff on the trip with him. The
train conductor starts sounding the alarm a half hour out from the
Chicago dock yard. He wants to be sure all the truckers get plenty
of notice. Each driver would have to be with his rig when the train
came to a stop. The train would start its automatic break-up almost
immediately after stopping. The passenger cars would stay with the
engine, but all the truck-carrying railcars would uncouple and head
for vacant slips. Shortly before breakup the conductor walks the
length of the train to ensure all drivers are awake and in their rigs. Once
again under the control of the yard computer system, each car will
deliver its truck, ready to drive out into Chicago as soon as the
railcar comes to rest at the dock and the truck's axles are unlatched. Woe be to
the driver that didn't make it back to his truck's railcar before the
break-up. Any railcar without a driver checking in at the control
panel gets diverted onto a holding track, with the trucker being
charged a penalty fee based on how long he hogs the railcar. It can
also take a while to get the railcar switched off the siding, since
it may be buried in a line of delinquent cars. He also gets charged
if he uses the official taxi service, which is the only way "civilians"
are allowed to move around the dock yard. Let's face it--once a
driver has been separated from his truck in the dock yard, he is
definitely a "civilian". And
so our well-rested truckers advance with their loads out into the
great city of Chicago. They will have the whole day to drop off and
pick up, and to conduct any other business that time permits. As the
sun begins to approach the evening horizon, they will be back aboard
railcars, heading south in the general direction of Kansas City,
Topeka and Dallas. A long haul trucker's job just ain't what it used
to be! The
National High Speed Rail System described in this story could be built today. It uses existing technology.
It would do for railroads what the interstate highway system did for highway travel. The economic
efficiencies gained from the system's ability to move freight hauling trucks from place to place across
the country would entirely justify the cost of building it. Nevertheless, the folks at Amtrak and other
passenger carriers would probably be extremely delighted with it, because it would give them a reliable,
high-speed, nation-wide rail network upon which to operate. No longer would their trains be diverted onto
sidings to let higher priority freight trains pass. No longer would their speed be limited over long
stretches of slipshod trackage. With such a national express system, passenger rail service could be
expected to increase tremendously, the ticket expense falling along with travel times. The
nation is struggling with steadily rising fuel costs. When more and more of our money is being sent
overseas to import the "black gold", it makes sense to find ways of operating our commerce systems more
efficiently. A National High Speed Rail System like the one described here could significantly reduce
fossil fuel consumption in this country. Furthermore, it could be converted to use electric locomotives
that receive their power directly from the national electric power grid. Such a railroad could be powered
using solar, wind, and nuclear power generation, potentially eliminating its use of fossil fuels and making
a major contribution in the fight against global warming. The
National High Speed Rail System could not only do all these things, but also could be highly profitable
for the companies that operate it. Let's build it!
TomAtwood@Earthlink.net
Driving Into The Dallas Dockyard
Driving Into The Railcar
Assembling The Train
Settling In For The Ride
Sleeping Through The Transfer At Kansas City
The Slow Dock At Topeka
Approaching Chicago
Driving Chicago