Re: Mr Rayner's views of Electrification.

darkprince66 <darkprince17031966@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Wasting how much diesel on each trip? 5 engines at 158 miles a trip
(10 engines on some journeys from December). Don't forget also that
Chester goes hourly from December. Thats a heck of a lot of diesel
each day. And if you can justify the use on the Chester/Holyhead
trains, you sure as hell can't do the same for their use on Lancaster
trains, or on BNS-Scotland.

Sad maybe, but I just did a quick train count on table 65, northbound
over Shap, there are 37 passenger trains a day, Monday to Friday,
operated by Virgin, First TPX and Scotrail. Of these, 21 are diesel
traction, electric only 16, meaning that around 57% of those trains
are using diesel they don't need to be. Expensive diesel that is going
to get progressively scarcer and if this waste does not damage the
case for electrification, I don't know what does.

Very, very wasteful...


So you would prefer that we use electricity, around 80% of which is
generated in the UK by burning fossil fuels?

As diesel gets scarce, so will gas. So gas fired electricity doesn't
offer a sensible alternative.

As diesel and gas get scarce, wind power will have failed to reduce
the UK's carbon emissions, just as it has failed in Denmark. So do
you think we should turn to coal? Coal generates about twice the
carbon emissions of gas for each kWh generated, so that's out.

That leaves us with nuclear. The proportion of nuclear generated
electricity is dropping as nuclear stations age. Some will soon be
shut down. Others are getting less and less reliable, and therefore
generating less power. The lead time for new nuclear stations is so
long that the percentage of nuclear generated electricity will
continue to drop until about 2020, when it will be much lower than now
(18% this year) and will only then start to climb.

So nuclear isn't a real alternative until some time after 2020.

.... all this makes retaining diesel trains look very sensible!

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Worlds First Fuel Cell-Powered Train Locomotive Slated for 2008
    ... >> today) has nowhere near the storage density that diesel has. ... > trains which carry the stuff anyway. ... I misspoke on the relative price of electricity; ... the other proposals have all included similar electrification. ...
    (sci.energy.hydrogen)
  • Re: Worlds First Fuel Cell-Powered Train Locomotive Slated for 2008
    ... >> today) has nowhere near the storage density that diesel has. ... > trains which carry the stuff anyway. ... I misspoke on the relative price of electricity; ... the other proposals have all included similar electrification. ...
    (sci.energy)
  • Re: Hull Trains hybrids?
    ... between diesel and electric units. ... losses for electricity, you must do the same for diesel). ... If you can do all these things with zero CO2 emissions, ... cheaper for a TOC to run diesel trains than electric trains, ...
    (uk.railway)
  • Re: Mr Rayners views of Electrification.
    ... Thats a heck of a lot of diesel ... trains, or on BNS-Scotland. ... So you would prefer that we use electricity, ... That leaves us with nuclear. ...
    (uk.railway)
  • Re: damage from ethanol?
    ... But where are the nuclear power plants, ... I'm not saying these cars are bad or no one should ... can get past it with hybrid tech too. ... Yes diesel is a good option. ...
    (alt.home.repair)
Loading