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Re: We Need to Electrify As Much Transportation As We Can
Author: Erik H.
Date: 04-04-2016 - 17:56
News at Noon Wrote:
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> Mostly about electric vehicle transportation but a
> short paragraph about light (lite) rail at the
> bottom
>
> "Much more efficient modes of transportation are
> light rail, any kind of public transportation,
> actually. So what we really need is to build up
> more rail transport...
The electric buses used in Vancouver, BC, Seattle and San Francisco, which are powered by nearly 90% hydropower in each instance, handily beat the environmental impacts of Portland's light rail, powered 60% by coal and natural gas; TriMet's WES train requires three engines (two non-EPA 600 HP propulsion engines plus one on-board electric generator) to move a train that has the capacity of less than two buses, and has a dismal load factor where most trips carry 40 or fewer riders along the entire trip end to end, while buses are required to burn ULSD fuel and meet current EPA regulations; hybrid buses are even more environmentally efficient but are generally lacking in the Portland metro area.
More rail transport has resulted in lower public transit usage, while making the transit system more dependent upon park-and-ride lots full of single occupant vehicles.
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mostly about electric vehicle transportation but a
> short paragraph about light (lite) rail at the
> bottom
>
> "Much more efficient modes of transportation are
> light rail, any kind of public transportation,
> actually. So what we really need is to build up
> more rail transport...
The electric buses used in Vancouver, BC, Seattle and San Francisco, which are powered by nearly 90% hydropower in each instance, handily beat the environmental impacts of Portland's light rail, powered 60% by coal and natural gas; TriMet's WES train requires three engines (two non-EPA 600 HP propulsion engines plus one on-board electric generator) to move a train that has the capacity of less than two buses, and has a dismal load factor where most trips carry 40 or fewer riders along the entire trip end to end, while buses are required to burn ULSD fuel and meet current EPA regulations; hybrid buses are even more environmentally efficient but are generally lacking in the Portland metro area.
More rail transport has resulted in lower public transit usage, while making the transit system more dependent upon park-and-ride lots full of single occupant vehicles.
