6 replies to this topic

[BlueMound]

Tomorrowland meets Texas - Futuristic freight system planned for I-35 corridor
Article link
Freight normally hauled by trucks could one day soon be shipped on an electric-powered, overhead guideway across Texas.
The Freight Shuttle system will operate in the air space of I-35's highway median.

[Joshw]

Hmm, interesting. Fort Worth flirts with trains but just can't commit, I'm afraid though.

[Russ Graham]

Can you imagine taking a road trip, and for 250 miles you are staring up at the underside of these space-age freight trains? What happens when (not if) one of these things jumps the rails and falls down on the congested traffic it was meant to avoid?

Texas needs to get serious about combating sprawl and the resulting highway congestion instead of these boondoggles to work around it.

[mmiller2002]

"planned" may be a bit overstated at this time.

Maybe imagined, concieved, dreamt, ...

[Electricron]

And what happens to the "tomorrow land" freight when it reaches the end of the guideway? Are there tractors lined up for miles waiting to move each and every load to its final destination? Where are the "tomorrow land"tractors stored and maintained?

To actually run a railroad properly, or should I state any freight distribution system, you would be surprised at how may yards are needed. Just look at all the yards in and around Fort Worth for visible examples. Each and every yard is needed or it would never have been built.

Texas would be far better served by electrifying the existing freight rail corridors.

[RD Milhollin]

And what happens to the "tomorrow land" freight when it reaches the end of the guideway? Are there tractors lined up for miles waiting to move each and every load to its final destination? Where are the "tomorrow land"tractors stored and maintained?

I was very surprised that the dreamed up guideway would not terminate at the Alliance Multimodal facility or Dallas Logistics Hub. These facilities would seem to be ideal for transferring bulk shipments onto east-west and northeast-bound trains. This would almost make the guideway make some sort of sense.

To actually run a railroad properly, or should I state any freight distribution system, you would be surprised at how may yards are needed. Just look at all the yards in and around Fort Worth for visible examples. Each and every yard is needed or it would never have been built.

I would guess that there is actually a lot of redundancy in rail yards, especially the minor ones (not the UP Davidson, etc.) There would probably be a surprising amount of urban land freed up for other uses if the rail carriers could be persuaded to consolidate tracks and locally coordinate operation (the "Union Station model" that many cities have. The massive web of barely used tracks east of downtown Fort Worth come to mind, I may be missing something, but most of those tracks seem to be unused; mainly trains sued up to cross the Tower 55 intersection.

Texas would be far better served by electrifying the existing freight rail corridors.

I would think that straightening the tracks would probably add more efficiency to the system. It is interesting to see how rail lines snake around the countryside rather than going straight-line from point to point. This characteristic of the line limits speed and thus the ability of the otherwise pretty efficient locomotives from achieving their best performance. Electrification would cost how much? If that amount were applied toward straightening and flattening the tracks (eliminating major at-grade crossings in the process for added safety) I think the system would be better off.

I may be wrong on this. There are several people on this list, you included, who are obviously studied in rail transportation systems, and I am an admitted amateur. I am still interested in the potential for rail transportation and try to keep up with the public news on developments in that area, and ride and take note of passenger rail systems in other areas I visit.

[renamerusk]

Tomorrowland meets Texas - Futuristic freight system planned for I-35 corridor
Article link
Freight normally hauled by trucks could one day soon be shipped on an electric-powered, overhead guideway across Texas.
The Freight Shuttle system will operate in the air space of I-35's highway median.

The Star-Telegram is touting what?

Reminder please! This is the same newspaper that used its NE Bureau to rail relentlessly against the central city streetcar project to then successfully pulled off one of the great flip-flops in local annals by being 'For" the Street Car Start-up Project before it was "Against" it! The S-T is counting on us to have a very short memory and was undoubtedly having a slow news day. They are joking, aren't they?

Keep Fort Worth folksy