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0 pointsubanholzer5y ago0 comments

Switzerland moved 40% of all freight traffic kilometerd to the rails too, which is really a lot. (https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfsstatic/dam/assets/10547450/maste...)

0 comments

throw0101a5y ago

The passenger modal share for rail in CH is 21%:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag...

For the US it is 0.3%.

Given that CH is land-locked, it's not surprising that freight modal share is 46%, because it has to get inland from a port in some way:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag...

This is higher than the US, but give that 127M Americans (40%) live in counties that are on the coast, it's probably not too hard to get things to them:

* https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html

* https://www.livescience.com/18997-population-coastal-areas-i...

Heck, Los Angeles county has a population (10M) larger than CH (8.5M), and would be the 10th largest state (between NC and MI):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories...

So a good number of Americans can get goods pretty direct without long distance inland shipping.

asdff5y ago

Not everyone living along a coast has an appropriate coast to establish a harbor sufficient for shipping. If you live in big sur you still get your crap from china delivered inland from the port of Los Angeles.

throw0101a5y ago

Where did I say that it was necessary? In the US there are lots of major ports all along the coast, which is where most of the population is. For the Pacific:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Panamax_ports#Pacific_...

And from any of those it's probably not that far to any major population centre.

Compare to Switzerland, which has precisely zero ports, and so of course needs rail (and trucks) to get things delivered.

1 more reply

macspoofing5y ago

You're going to have to provide some context. I don't know what you're trying to argue.

Symbiote5y ago

A 40% share of tonne-km by rail in Switzerland is similar to the figure for the USA. It's other European countries that have too much road freight.

Note that ships are much more used in Europe.

https://transportgeography.org/?page_id=1828

ubanholzerOP5y ago

Just wanted to clarify that this is not valid for the whole continent and it would work for western europe to move the traffic on rails.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

throw0101a5y ago

The passenger modal share for rail in CH is 21%:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag...

For the US it is 0.3%.

Given that CH is land-locked, it's not surprising that freight modal share is 46%, because it has to get inland from a port in some way:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag...

This is higher than the US, but give that 127M Americans (40%) live in counties that are on the coast, it's probably not too hard to get things to them:

* https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html

* https://www.livescience.com/18997-population-coastal-areas-i...

Heck, Los Angeles county has a population (10M) larger than CH (8.5M), and would be the 10th largest state (between NC and MI):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories...

So a good number of Americans can get goods pretty direct without long distance inland shipping.

asdff5y ago

throw0101a5y ago

Where did I say that it was necessary? In the US there are lots of major ports all along the coast, which is where most of the population is. For the Pacific:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Panamax_ports#Pacific_...

And from any of those it's probably not that far to any major population centre.

Compare to Switzerland, which has precisely zero ports, and so of course needs rail (and trucks) to get things delivered.

1 more reply

macspoofing5y ago

You're going to have to provide some context. I don't know what you're trying to argue.

Symbiote5y ago

A 40% share of tonne-km by rail in Switzerland is similar to the figure for the USA. It's other European countries that have too much road freight.

Note that ships are much more used in Europe.

https://transportgeography.org/?page_id=1828

ubanholzerOP5y ago

Just wanted to clarify that this is not valid for the whole continent and it would work for western europe to move the traffic on rails.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse