Trains

Yesterday I took the ‘Capital Corridor’ Amtrak line from Davis to Sacramento. It was the first time I’ve been on a train in, like, 15 years. Something like that. The ride itself was only 20-25 minutes long, considerably shorter than the wait, but it got me thinking. Trains are relatively fast, efficient if you have more than a handful of people riding, and far more comfortable than charter buses (which I had the pleasure of riding the rest of the way home for the weekend).

I’m not going to bore you with the long and involved history of trains; you can Wikipedia it yourself if you’re that interested.* Unfortunately, because trains are not exactly a great piece of art, I’m not going to be able to educate/fascinate you with the finer points of color theory or artsy vocab. Instead, I will try to briefly elaborate how trains are such an economical design in today’s world.

According to FactCheck.org – which had better be right – freight trains can transport one ton of freight 436 miles, or more, on a gallon of diesel fuel. “The average works out to be 435.88 ton-miles per gallon of fuel” (1). I can’t imagine that passenger trains would be much less efficient, despite having more frequent stops (acceleration, and therefore deceleration, is one of the greatest factors in a high gas mileage).

Now, I am an American and I do love the freedom that comes from driving myself from A to B in an automobile, but I think that in the environmentally conscious world that everyone keeps saying they want it would be a good idea to start riding trains again.** It might be a good idea to follow the more-or-less developed countries in Asia, Japan, and the European’s transportation model/design on this one. A lot of the infrastructure for a US rail-system is already built and Warren Buffett just recently expressed confidence in the railroads (2). Then he proceeded to invest $34 billion in RR operator Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Who says money doesn’t talk?

*Here’s the link, just in case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train

(1) http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/can_a_freight_train_really_move_a.html

**Hey, we did it lots last couple of centuries…

(2) I’m quoting from one of Steve Schaefer’s recent articles from Forbes.com. I actually read it in a magazine – *gasp* – so I don’t have the link handy. Sorry.

The image is the type of train I was on yesterday. Or, at least, it’s an Amtrak train, so it’s basically the same… Here’s the link: http://www.lightrailnow.org/images/amtrak-3-rivers-marysville-pa-20030916br_dave-kerr.jpg