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OT: does it make sense for trains to have RoRo truck service?

Spud

Spud

Diamond
Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Location
Brookfield, Wisconsin
If you are driving a class A truck, and want to go from Minnesota to Texas or Oregon to Arizona or any number of long distance trips, wouldn't you like to drive your truck onto a rail car, retire to a passenger car in the same train then drive the truck off at the destination? You cut the risk of accidents quite significantly, long distance driving can be exhausting and fuel is expensive. Trains do transport semi trailers but I haven't seen tractor+trailer being transported in the US.

At the very start of this video, entire tractor+trailer units are seen transported by rail.
 
Spud said:
If you are driving a class A truck, and want to go from Minnesota to Texas or Oregon to Arizona or any number of long distance trips, wouldn't you like to drive your truck onto a rail car, retire to a passenger car in the same train then drive the truck off at the destination? You cut the risk of accidents quite significantly, long distance driving can be exhausting and fuel is expensive. Trains do transport semi trailers but I haven't seen tractor+trailer being transported in the US.

At the very start of this video, entire tractor+trailer units are seen transported by rail.
Click to expand...

That would involve a train leaving the station every few hours, and BE-ON-TIME...
 
digger doug said:
That would involve a train leaving the station every few hours, and BE-ON-TIME...
Click to expand...
US does trains-as-needed instead of trains-on-time. Saw an interesting thing showing that they'd have been better off under steam doing fewer, faster trains on a schedule instead of the US fixation with the heaviest longest train they could fit, when it was ready. Steam is more efficient at higher speed, amazingly. Still wouldn't have stopped dieselization but might have helped the bottom line earlier.

Trouble with the ro-ro idea is, you can fit four containers in the same space as one tractor-trailer setup. So not very efficient :(

But wider use of trains to move containers cross-country sure does seem like a smart idea, with diesel getting so expensive. Up here there's at least 20 to 30 a day going past, to-from Canada. Three locos pulling, two pushing. Would be more fun if they ran Big Boys :D Loved being in Haerbin, they pushed all the steam to the northeast for its last gasp, was plenty cool. Especially the whistles at night, across the snow.
 
It would involve more flexibility than the train service has.
I have seen pics of trailers on trains.

I have pondered whether commuter rail might be a method of same day delivery
 
digger doug said:
That would involve a train leaving the station every few hours, and BE-ON-TIME...
Click to expand...


Suppose a semi needs to go from Chicago to Seattle, will the truck arrive in Seattle sooner if they went by road ratehr than wait a few hours to take the train?

Wouldn't a RoRo service also increase the number of drivers available to make long haul trips, helping the trucker shortage problem?
 
gustafson said:
It would involve more flexibility than the train service has.
I have seen pics of trailers on trains.

I have pondered whether commuter rail might be a method of same day delivery
Click to expand...


There is an Auto-train service for consumer vehicles that runs along the East Coast, from Virginia to Florida. It is a RoRo service.
 
It is my understanding that UPS used to use a lot of train service, which means that cross country is a pretty dependable 7 days, with a day on either end lost to handling. So 5 days cross country by train without the overhead of a driver

I am all for the concept.

I think that train systems were built when people were not brainwashed by Amazon 2 day shipping. They are not designed like airline routes where you can get anywhere in a day


Remember when you didn't know when stuff was going to show up? Before tracking?

Stuff just came.

1 week, 2 weeks, whatever.
 
gustafson said:
..
..Remember when you didn't know when stuff was going to show up? Before tracking?

Stuff just came.

1 week, 2 weeks, whatever.
Click to expand...

Heck I remember "please send check or mo to po box whatever and allow 4-6 weeks for delivery"

As far as commercial ro ro... more efficient to pay a driver to haul a container or trailer a few miles to be craned onto a rail car and pay a different driver 1500 miles later a few more miles to take it to it's final destination....
I've actually been both a locomotive engineer and an otr truck driver at different times in the past...

Got to ride in a Triple Crown trailer train once when I was conductor before becoming an engineer. That was a unique experience. No slack, very smooth
 
Smokeonthewater said:
Heck I remember "please send check or mo to po box whatever and allow 4-6 weeks for delivery"

As far as commercial ro ro... more efficient to pay a driver to haul a container or trailer a few miles to be craned onto a rail car and pay a different driver 1500 miles later a few more miles to take it to it's final destination....
I've actually been both a locomotive engineer and an otr truck driver at different times in the past...

Got to ride in a Triple Crown trailer train once when I was conductor before becoming an engineer. That was a unique experience. No slack, very smooth
Click to expand...


I assumed it was more cost efficient to only transport the trailer or container, which already happens, but a lot of trucking will want to have the same driver picking and dropping off the cargo. Owner-operators will need to be with their cargo from A to B.

Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper and faster to transport the whole semi-truck by rail than travel by road, for long haul trips that are of several hundred miles or more?
 
Spud said:
There is an Auto-train service for consumer vehicles that runs along the East Coast, from Virginia to Florida. It is a RoRo service.
Click to expand...

...and it's scheduled well in advance, and takes hours to load, and one trip each day at best.
 
dalmatiangirl61 said:
I'd rather stay in the truck or RV than the passenger car, ala the Copper Canyon RR.
Click to expand...

I was hoping to take our 5th wheel and truck on that trip but apparently they stopped doing it years ago.


I've also considered seeing if we could ship the rig to Arizona with us in it to save the drive.
 
Real simple YOU CANNOT TRUST THE RR not to overcharge for the service and want total control...If you have ever dealt with a rr you would know not to...Phil
 
Phil in Montana said:
Real simple YOU CANNOT TRUST THE RR not to overcharge for the service and want total control...If you have ever dealt with a rr you would know not to...Phil
Click to expand...


They already transport the trailer units, so it can't be that bad.


If one could just drive their Semi onto a railcar and then drive off hundreds of miles away, seems like this would be a very popular service. Lots of major benefits to be had. The video in the OP is from Switzerland. If they can do it, shouldn't be an issue here, and would it not make more sense in America considering how large the country is and how much goods is transported by truck?
 
Loading gauge,stability,access,and cost........incidentally ,in the 1950s and 1960s all truck freight across the Nullabor went truck on rail wagon because of the appaling /non existant state of the roads,and dust damage to loads.......the rail was basically 1000 miles without curves or tunnels .........however in the late 60s/early 70s there was a rain event over the whole of Oz ,and the transcontinental rail was extensively washed out several times ......at the same time trucks had got bigger ,diesel instead of gasoline,and much higher road speed......and the roads were fixed with the rail washed out..........end of trucks on rail,and its never come back.....40ft and 48 ft containers have killed the idea for ever.
 
Drive up on a rail adapter and drive yourself along the track. No steering required. I'm sure it will turn out fine.
 
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