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corktina · 14-09-2010, 20:09

Its not as simple as one freight train equals so many lorries.

The freight will have to be delivered to the railhead (by truck as often as not) and loaded. This takes time. Whilst the first wagon is being loaded, the truck that brought it to the railhead could have be on its way to destination and so could all the other trucks so that by the time the 40th truck has discharged into the rail wagon , the first lorry might nearly have arrived. The same applies when the freight train arrives at destination only to take time unloading into lots of trucks for possibly many destinations, to which the original Lorries could of course have gone to directly.This is a disadvantage only countered by long distances, of which there arent any in Ireland as already said..

Add to this that there really arent any bulk flows of goods available for rail to move anyway and the conclusion is rail freight is a dead duck.

14-09-2010, 20:09	#25
corktina Regular Poster Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 47	Its not as simple as one freight train equals so many lorries. The freight will have to be delivered to the railhead (by truck as often as not) and loaded. This takes time. Whilst the first wagon is being loaded, the truck that brought it to the railhead could have be on its way to destination and so could all the other trucks so that by the time the 40th truck has discharged into the rail wagon , the first lorry might nearly have arrived. The same applies when the freight train arrives at destination only to take time unloading into lots of trucks for possibly many destinations, to which the original Lorries could of course have gone to directly.This is a disadvantage only countered by long distances, of which there arent any in Ireland as already said.. Add to this that there really arent any bulk flows of goods available for rail to move anyway and the conclusion is rail freight is a dead duck. Last edited by corktina : 14-09-2010 at 20:11.