Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum: Replying To CSX TV Commercial - Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Years ago I saw a map showing traffic volumes on the various US inland waterways. Thought I might come up with it on-line. No joy. What I did find was this piece of government financed propoganda that includes a map of where the designated US inland waterways are located.

LINK

And barge traffic is limited seasonally, as well. It wouldn't be very efficient to try to push a barge to St. Paul in January, and navigation on the Missouri, at least, is often maintained in low-flow periods only at the expense of upper-river interests.

George Harris, on Tue, Jan 26, 2010, 03:27 PM, said:

Cool. I love little historic tidbits.

PetalumaLoco, on Mon, Jan 25, 2010, 09:20 PM, said:

Presumably an average. But, there can be a huge difference between upstream and downstream. I have watched upstream tows going past Memphis upstream running flat out and barely moving, and the downstream ones using only enough power to maintain control.

Know about the Natchez Trace? It owes its existence to that issue. Flatboats propelled by human power and current would float downstream form Nashville or thereabouts on the Cumberland, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to Natchez, which the ocean going ships of that time could reach. The flatboat men would then walk back to Nashville along the trail that became known as the Natchez trace.

Gavain, on Mon, Jan 25, 2010, 07:35 PM, said:

Inland barge is the most energy efficient.

From Trains Magazine, July 09.
Miles per gallon carrying 1 ton of cargo.
Truck freight: 155
Freight railroad: 413
Inland towing: 576
Their source: Texas Transportation Inst. 2007

In terms of its impact on the environment, each mode of transportation needs to be evaluated for its energy and resource-consumption over the entire life-cycle of the engine. We would want to know how much energy is invested in the production of a locomotive engine and rail cars versus the energy invested in the fabrication of the number of semi-trucks required to haul an equivalent tonnage. So, it is important to factor in both how many cars (and, hence, how much tonnage) the average locomotive hauls, as well as how many trains run at the same time, in order to get a sense of how much train is required to haul the total annual ton-miles, and so add in the energy cost of fabricating that much train. Truth be told, we would also want to figure the energy investment of decomissioning or recycling all that train. But, purely for the operational period of the life-cycle, freight trains seem to be far and away the most energy-efficient (except for maybe freighter ships?).

ALC_Rail_Writer, on Thu, Nov 26, 2009, 06:40 PM, said:

Don't you mean one cubic yard of hot air?

Long Train Runnin', on Thu, Nov 26, 2009, 06:22 PM, said:

And the best part...

It runs on only one gallon of fuel.

WhoozOn1st, on Sun, Nov 2, 2008, 11:43 PM, said:

Well it just won't die!

George Harris, on Wed, Mar 4, 2009, 12:14 PM, said:

This engineering/statical/financial process you are talking about is called "normalizing" and is used to compare different processes by creating a common metric. Very common and very valid.