Comment by youngtaff

6 months ago

Efficiency — mainly through lower friction

“Thanks to the very low friction between the steel wheel and steel rail, railways can move a load using as little as 15% of the energy that road haulage needs.”

Gareth Dennis, How Railways will Fix the Future (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/761930/how-the-rail...)

Everyone proposing trams says this. None of them provide any numbers. How much more efficient does it have to be to offset the much greater cost of the roadway?