North American and European Freight Service: Differences

[Cricketer]

Following Doc Murdoch’s question about passenger railways how anout one from me on freight railways.

Lets start with a few observations:

1. North America. Diesel. Europe, especially in Mainland Europe Electric.

2. North America. Freight rules the roost. Europe. Freight is secondary to passenger service, not just on the lines but in terms of management expertise/effort.

3. Speed. North America. While speed can be quite high over long stretches the average freight train does not travel too fast, especially over mountain passes. Horsepower is enough to get train over the top and down the far side safely. Europe Because of 2 and to an extent 1 above freight trains tend not to crawl up grades, doing so would use up too much track capacity. So trains have plenty of horsepower to keep them going up grade at a decent speed. Best example is the Gotthard pass route in Switzerland where freights have to go up a 3% grade at 50mph or else they get in the way of the passenger service.

4. Length of train. North America. Long. Europe. Short

[beaulieu]

Following Doc Murdoch’s question about passenger railways how anout one from me on freight railways.

Lets start with a few observations:

1. North America. Diesel. Europe, especially in Mainland Europe Electric.

2. North America. Freight rules the roost. Europe. Freight is secondary to passenger service, not just on the lines but in terms of management expertise/effort.

The last part about it being secondary in terms of expertise and effort is the only part I would disagree with you. Five years ago this would have be true in France, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and to a lesser extent Germany. Now the companies where this is true are rapidly fading to insignificance in European Railfreight. Now you either put in talent and effort or the hungry dogs will eat you alive. Unlike in North America you have no captive monopoly anymore.

3. Speed. North America. While speed can be quite high over long stretches the average freight train does not travel too fast, especially over mountain passes. Horsepower is enough to get train over the top and down the far side safely. Europe Because of 2 and to an extent 1 above freight trains tend not to crawl up grades, doing so would use up too much track capacity. So trains have plenty of horsepower to keep them going up grade at a decent speed. Best example is the Gotthard pass route in Switzerland where freights have to go up a 3% grade at 50mph or else they get in the way of the passenger service.

4. Length of train. North America. Long. Europe. Short

[tatans]

Statistics, economics, etc etc etc included, the one major factor in North America is distance, Europeans choke at the distances we have to cover here, One instance reminds me of the problem, Nova Scotia had a bad hay crop one year, and farmers in Alberta decided to ship hay to them, can you imagine trucking hay that distance, then the railways decided to help ship hay to them, how ridiculous is that? As you notice thousands and thousands of tracks are now gone in NA but the distances are so vast it seems to be a barrier for shipping some products, only huge amounts of product can be shipped by rail economically, that’s why travel by train is basically no more, as soon as you can get 500,000 people per day travelling by train you will have train service.