Re: Latest news on Speedrail

["Tezza" <tezza2000@dingoblue.net.au>]

"Dave Proctor"
> "Maurie Daly"
> > Yes, the double handling costs of having to transship goods from rail
> > to road at each end in order to deliver to the final customer makes
> > rail even less attractive than it could be.
> > Ive often wondered why rail operators dont also own truck fleets so as
> > to eliminate part of this problem.
>
> State Rail used to (Trackfast trucks).

And what a fine example of management that lot of crooks were.

> I wonder if anyone has investigated the freight DMU currently under
> development in Germany? The one I read about in Modern Railways is a
> five-car articulated unit, with each car capable of carrying one container,
> and there is a drivers cab at each end. They are capable of operating in
> multiple (d'uh, that is why they are a DMU I suppose) so if you have 15
> containers going you can run three of them together. Of course there would
> be a point where the economies would be better with a full train and a loco
> or two, but for small loads it could be worthwhile, and could be a way to
> service multiple destinations.

>From the figures I've seen, it's cheaper to send a container by rail already.