Trucks or Trains?

Question

Ok so we have all seen this Q b4 but i would like to open it up once more. Witch is better?

Answer 1

Better for what?

For mass public transportation.....trains.

For shipment of heavy bulk goods from a fixed location to a fixed location.....trains.

For shipment of smaller goods to multiple locations.....trucks.

Answer 2

I personally think that Trains are better.

Answer 3

trains - higher, and more stringent maintenance quality, and less in number

Answer 4

trains for long haul because of fuel efficiency and cost to tax payer for less wear and traffic on roads.    Trucks are needed for short haul from where trains leave off.

Answer 5

Muirland, I am going to give an answer that may surprise you, and that you may automatically reject. But don't do it without thinking.

There is a better answer for long distance transport than either trains or trucks. It's a technology we once had, then abandoned for various reasons, but that modern engineering now makes very appealing.

Zeppelins. Dirigibles.

What makes them good for freight and passenger transport?

1. Huge payloads can be moved without need for either rail or road, as easily over land as water, than can be landed almost anywhere.

2. The use of fuel, compared to both trains and trucks is remarkably small. A zeppelin hauling a thousand tons of goods would use 1/10 of the fuel consumed by trucks.

Now, or course, everyone has the image in their mind (if they've even heard of zeppelins at all) of the Hindenburg, going down in flames.

The reason this happened was that when the zeppelin fleets

first were deployed in the late twenties and early thirties, the gas that gave them buoyancy was helium. Helium is non-flammable. The Germans switched to hydrogen after America cut off their supply of helium, and that led inevitably to disaster.

Now helium is a common by product of many industrial processes. It is very cheap to produce directly, and is incidentally produced as a side product of other materials.

Modern structural engineering would make it possible to build much larger and more capable dirigibles than those that we had in the thirties.

Why did we not return to the technology after the war?

The answer to that is the oil and gas lobbies wanted us to devote our energies to gasoline based technologies, and there were many strong voices for the complex of interstate highways we built between the thirties and the seventies.

But now that all our infrastructure is in need of revamping, the time  has come to reconsider this fine and unobjectionable technology.

To me it is strange how often really good ideas get left behind.

I hope this makes you realize that sometimes there are more choices than just the two most obvious.

Answer 6

trucks!!

Answer 7

Trucks riding trains!! I am a firm believer in containers and trailer on a flatcar for long distance and trucks for 100 miles or less.One train can deliver 100 trucks to an intermodal terminal.100 trucks can't deliver a train.

Answer 8

i think trains are better because they are a faster transporter.

:] that's what I think though...you may have a different opinion!

Answer 9

i think trains they are more fun to ride