this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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Are trains and railroad solarpunkable? (self.climate)
submitted 1 year ago by francisco to c/climate
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A lot of people point to trains efficiency as a way forward to minimize the environmental impact of the transportation sector. But are trains and railroad solarpunkable? Or is it just another "all eggs in the same basket" industry?

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[–] MrMakabar 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In the EU there are no taxes whatsortever on aviation fuel. Furthermore airlines get free emission certificates for every flight. For international flights you do not pay VAT in the EU and only seven European countries have ticket taxes.

Pretty easy to see why rail has a problem in competing. The good part is that aviation fuel taxes are supported by most members and are in the work, the Comission is proposing to cut the free certificates. VAT remains a problem thou.

[–] francisco 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did not know that. Thanks for the info.

It still surprises me that a 300km train ticket costs about the same per person as taking a car with 2 people paying fuel and highway tolls. A 600 seat optimized 'car' on a dedicated low friction track should be, maybe, 100x cheaper.

[–] MrMakabar 2 points 1 year ago

In Kazahkstan you can get 1329km train journey for $18.40. That is not uncommon in poorer countries at all to be around $2 for 100km. So I presume it is higher wages. At the same time energy is incredibly cheap today, so the optimization with low friction does not help much.