How do both of these industries compete, truck vs. rail? What advantages, disadvantages both have?
2007-04-19 18:33:18 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Cars & Transportation ➔ Other - Cars & Transportation
rail
pro: huge amount of freight can be moved at reasonable speed (like 100+ freight cars at once at about 35-40 MPH), which makes bulk shipments very cheap, very fuel efficient (and conversely, minimal air pollution)
con: only goes to "hubs", not any point to any point
truck
pro: can go almost anywhere to anywhere (as long as there's a loading dock or lift gate), reasonable capacity (containerful of stuff at once)
con: truck diesels are polluting, labor intensive (driving is a full-time business)
The best system is combine the two: use train to send stuff from one major hub, like a port, to another hub, then use trucks the rest of the way to individual locations.
con:
2007-04-19 22:09:51 · answer #1 · answered by Kasey C 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
rail has the advantage... 2 locomotives can pull 17,000 tons of coal.. (about 88 cars) .. that takes a few hundred trucks off the road... plus fuel for all those trucks and the drivers.
. all it takes is a engineer and a conductor and one tank of diesel will last a week in a locomotive ...
2007-04-19 20:08:56 · answer #2 · answered by beverhouzen 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
humanitarians support the trucking industry because they pick up hitchickers, otherwise its no contest.
2007-04-19 18:36:57 · answer #3 · answered by Spanktastic 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋