The Oil Drum

That's all very true. We have the electricity to make the shift, but it's available at night. So it's actually electricity storage that is an obstacle.

Rail uses a small fraction of U.S. energy -- a total of 659 trillion BTU, or 0.66 % of U.S. energy consumption (see Table 2.4).

About 10% of all U.S. rail is electrified, which means the other 90 percent can make the 250%-300% efficiency gains from electrification that Alan mentions. At best, present rail energy use could be reduced to 264 trillion BTU, or 0.26% of U.S. energy consumption.

[EDIT] (659 * 0.1) + ((659 * 0.9) / 3) = 264

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory report says we can add 3.1 quads of (mostly) nighttime load to the existing grid. That means we could increase the energy consumption of rail by something like 900% using existing grid capacity (assuming use of a storage scheme like pumped hydro which has a 78% efficiency ratio in the U.S.).

[EDIT] Increasing the energy consumption of rail by 900%, combined with a 200%-300% efficiency gain from electrification, would enable a 18-27 fold increase in the work accomplished by rail, using existing grid capacity.

vtpeacenik,
Or we could just encourage carpooling and vanpooling by barring one driver cars on the interstates, and refusing them a parking place in inner cities. Make the sale of new gasoline engines illegal, diesel and hybrids only. Stop road construction and repairs, instead put light rail on the right-of ways, tax internal combustion engine cars at $5,000 each as a license plate fee-call it an energy security tax.
The obstacles are the car companies and big oil, and the whores at the car companies could be persuaded by the idea of all the new diesel and electric cars.
Our country just lacks the political will because of the corruption from corporations.
Bob Ebersole

Frankly, I'm worried that we won't even be able to maintain the grid at current capacity in the post-carbon age, let alone expand it.

Electrifying current commuter trains would not do much. For example, let's suppose you electrified the Chicago METRA's Northwest line. It sees 64 commuter trains per day, the maximum size is 10 cars per train, shorter in off peak, suppose each railcar weighs 100 tons. That's a maximum of 64,000 ton-miles per mile you would be powering by electricity each day.

Put that same mile of wire above some of the more heavily traveled freight lines, such as those hauling coal out of the Powder River Basin, they often see 37 100+ car unit trains of around 12-15 thousand tons each, or 444,000 ton miles per day (plus another fourth or so for the empties moving back) per mile electrified.

Gallons of diesel saved per dollar of investment in overhead wire (or gallons of diesel saved per pound of copper overhead wire) would be much greater on freight lines.

(Yes, there are some other factors involved, like making the passenger service faster with better acceleration, etc., but this is just a crude analysis)

Better yet, just increase the average MPG on all light vehicles by 5 mpg, and you'll save a lot more gallons

I have seen the construction of 24 streetcars for the Canal Line in the New Orleans 1892 Carrollton Barn.

The trucks came from Brookville Equipment in Brookville PA, the a/c units (modified bus units) from the Czech Republic (Carrier compressors from the USA). All else within 100 miles.

End caps (complex curves) from local boat building company. Local Iron Works companies made body sections that were assembled in the barn. Mahogany seats built by local furniture company. Mahogany trim and many "bits & pieces" made by transit workmen, as well as final assembly and painting. Outside workmen came in and did the wiring and controls.

NOT EASY ! But it CAN be done !

Best Hopes for the WILL to do it,

Alan

There is plenty of hope for a better world after Peak Oil. Political and financial will are not presently in view -- but that can change pretty fast