General > General Technical Chat
The highway where trucks work like electric trains, can this actually work?
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T3sl4co1l:
With bettery or hybrid, there's no problem interrupting it -- they can just stop short of the ramp and resume after. :-+

Tim
david77:
They often have to take down signs and other roadmarkings for those oversized transports anyway, so I'd say it's no big deal to switch off the overhead lines and move them aside for a transport.

I really like the concept for last mile transport from the rail station to a warehouse somewhere. For cross country transports the railways are obviously a better solution.
Just_another_Dave:

--- Quote from: Kleinstein on October 26, 2021, 07:24:40 am ---In most places the costs for the extra overhead lines are not so bad. It would be a lot cheaper than the pavement and highway in the first place.
It can however become tricky with low birdges and tunnels.

The is a downside to overhead lines: they block the highway to overly high transports. These are rare, but from time to time there are oversized loads that need to be moved and the large highways are normally the prime candidates for such transports. For this reason many bridges are actually higher than the normal permitted hight. So those parts where the bridges would allow a cheap installation are those that may be needed for exceptional transports.

With a railway system alread in place, I don't think it make very much sense. If at all it would need a large area installation to work - those small area tests currently running would not justfy building the special trucks, just for the local trafic. It's the longer distances that have trouble with battery capacity.

--- End quote ---

Taking into account the advances in multimodal transportation systems, the railway seems a better choice than installing electrical wires in all highways in Europe. I don’t think it makes much sense even in Europe either
Ranayna:
The problem with the railway is that it does not go everywhere.
And it is virtually impossible to build new railway connections in central europe where there are none yet.

The buerocracy is just to much in germany. Not only do you have to aquire the actual land itself where you want to build the railway. But you also need approval by virtually everyone in quite a wide corridor around the track, due to the noise a railway creates. That corridor may be smaller if you build walls against the noise, but those can be expensive.
Germany is also dotted with a lot of nature preserves now. Those create an even bigger hassle. And if an endangered species is found near the planned route, well, good luck then resettling that family of hamsters.

Just look at the hoops they have to jump through to build "Nordlink", the power line that is supposed to deliver windpower from north germany to south germany. No one wants that nearby. And thats buried for big parts of the line, so you won't even know it's there when it's done.

So a new railway through germany? Especially a cargo railway? Will never happen. And it's not like anyone would even want to spend that amount of money.

In that regard i find this truck test very interesting. Expanding an existing highway is also somewhat easier than building a new one or a railway, so if this works out it may be possible to add a separated lane just for those electrified trucks. They could even easily be self driving while on the highway, taking a lot of pressure away from the truckers.
basinstreetdesign:
This system worked in downtown Toronto for decades.  They were the standard "bus" transit system on asphalt roads there during the 1950's to 1980's.  Also electric trolleys on tracks.  They ran on 35V overhead wires.  I remember watching as a passenger, every once in a while the follower would slip off the cable and the lights would go out.  So the driver would have to put the brakes on, get out and pull on the spring-loaded cord tied to it to put it back on.  Then off we would go again!
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