My journey is complete. I’ve been to Atlanta by way of Edmonton ( Seemed like a good idea at the time. How was it? Doggone good idea. Great trip. Great train. Substantially superior to Amtrak). Every inch of the journey by rail. As you will know if you’ve read my previous offerings I am a firm proponent of rail travel. But let me be very clear about one point – improved rail travel. As in Europe or in Asia.

Permit me to reiterate my position. Peak oil is near or here. The aftermath of the peak guarantees severely reduced supplies of liquid fuel. I know, I know, there is the promise of biofuels. But I am a firm disbeliever. Removing sufficient crop land from food production for fuel production will be unpopular even in the U.S. as food prices rise as a result. Coal can produce a liquid fuel, but only at a terrible price – not so much financially as environmentally, starting with carbon emissions.

Only the quite wealthy will be driving later in this century – how soon is the only open question. We have not established a society which can survive without extensive transportation. We really, really need reliable transportation, independent of geopolitics. Electric rail can do it. If the juice is supplied from renewable sources we should be in good shape.

I am presently proposing the instant planning of a three tier rail system – street cars (monorail included), light rail and bullet trains. I’m leaving maglev off the list because I don’t know the energy efficiency of the beast. China has begun running trains at 200 mph. Perhaps we’re capable of copying their achievement.

I am proposing dual rail systems, one for freight and one for people. A bullet train must have smooth rail else it will fly off the tracks. I don’t really know but I suspect that attempting to run long freights at 200 mph may be difficult. I suspect that heavy freight beats up trackage just as it does pavement. I’m not sure how much it matters, though without fast freight certain foods will become seasonally absent from the dinner table. If cars can’t drive planes can’t fly. Lettuce from Mexico may no longer work. Maybe it could be made to work by rail, I just don’t know.

It is readily observable that higher fuel prices bring people into mass transit – all forms of bus and rail transport are attracting ever increasing patronage after many decades of declining patronage. On many segments of my recent rail travels train seats were completely sold out. In fact, St. Paul to Spokane was about the only exception. Folks got off at places like Fargo, but few entrained for a trip to Minot during the small hours. Be that as it may, when gas hits ten bucks, or even five bucks a gallon, I do believe the demand will radically grow.

The question then becomes: Are we ready? The answer at the moment is absolutely not. If the tinderbox of the Arabian Gulf ignites, what is to become of us? Or Africa? Or South America? A job is frequently an hour or more from home, the grocery store a few miles, the doctor and dentist perhaps more. If the trucks stop rolling, what’s on the shelves in the grocery store?

Seems perilous to me. It would take so little to upset our cart. At this time we have no backup system. It will require incredible luck to keep us out of deep doo-doo. I’m no believer in incredible luck.

The lurching, bucking experience of passenger cars on freight lines is not attractive, nor is the experience of a passenger train moping along behind a slow freight when the schedule is slipping, slipping into oblivion. We want an attractive alternative. We need independent trackage, owned and operated by somebody other than freight lines. At the moment, entrepreneurial capital is not attracted to rail passenger service, not here nor anywhere in the world that I’m aware of. If it sounds like that awful socialism we’ve been warned about, so be it. There are things worse than socialism. (I was in China prior to the Communist takeover. May I observe that Communist rule has been good for the Chinese people when compared to what they had earlier? I know, it casts my Americanism into doubt, but I was in a position to observe. For what it’s worth, that communist country has adopted capitalist principles. Except in determining government policy.)

Why not wait until the electorate demands an alternative? Why go charging off down this path when perhaps it will prove to be unnecessary, or when a different approach might be better? I think we dare not wait because of the time required to plan a course and make it happen. A couple of decades? I don’t know. But if the Mid-east goes up what are folks to do while waiting for the brave new system? Call in sick for a couple decades? Tighten the belt another notch in the interim because there’s nothing to eat? Rail transport is a proven system in Asia and in Europe. The electric train is more than a kiddy delight. We do need vast improvements in renewable energy systems but work is proceeding lustily along those lines, and the future looks encouraging in that regard.

I have completed my journey. The finest part was probably people at table, always a different group, always people worth meeting (I never thought I’d be entertained by a prosecutor, but I was). Rail travel seems to attract the best sort of people. I don’t imagine any of them were particularly wealthy, but they were vibrant people. Perhaps a train that could travel from New York to Portland during the daylight of a single day would reduce some of the social delight of the present system, but I guess I could accept that.

And dream of the economic benefit of giving up the family fliver. What on earth are we to do with all that money?

Finally, my greetings to fellow correspondent George Seldes. Mr. Seldes is a splendid addition to our roster. I know nothing of the man other than his writing, but on that basis fondness grows.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 16th, 2007 at 7:22 am and is filed under Energy Future, Environment, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.