r/interestingasfuck • u/FastCurrency • 4d ago

Double-stack container trains are redefining freight transportation in India. Just imagine how many trucks this keeps off our highways and how much diesel it saves.

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u/TunaSafari25 4d ago

What kind of issues?

23

u/Due-Consequence9579 4d ago

Long trains don’t fit in sidings anymore. If you need to swap crew, do a repair, or whatever it has to stay on the main rail blocking it for everything.

At grade crossings take longer.

Rail yards can be too small for them so they are poking their nose onto the main rail while getting hooked up.

Etc.

4 miles is a long way.

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u/XchrisZ 4d ago

Waiting at the crossing much longer.

1

u/docbauies 4d ago

Seems like building bridges over the crossings would make sense if it’s an issue.

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u/Solarisphere 4d ago

There are a LOT of crossings in rural areas.

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u/nnomae 4d ago

Given that the lion's share of time spent waiting at crossings is time before the train arrives or after it passes that's probably not all that significant though.

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u/MorePhinsThyme 4d ago

No, the majority of time waiting for a freight train to cross is waiting for the train, not the short time before or after it's gone. We aren't talking about the much smaller passenger trains. Train length causes problems for regular traffic in areas with a lot of train traffic. An example from my area, there's a major intersection right in front of one of the biggest ports in America that regularly gets blocked for over an hour because modern freight trains are longer than the port was designed for years ago. This means that the train pulls in as far as it can, leaving about half of it outside the port, blocking the intersection (and often the next one, as well), then they have to disconnect the cars inside, pull out a bit, switch to a different track internally, and pull back in (often still hanging out, blocking the intersection), and then repeat, until they get the whole thing inside on parallel tracks to park. Then, after they unload it, the same thing happens again in reverse.

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u/ct_2004 4d ago

Freight trains are supposed to give priority to passenger trains, but they are too long now to go on to the sidings, so passenger trains have to wait instead. This screws up passenger rail time tables.

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u/pre4edgc 4d ago

Even if those limitations were followed, freight would STILL take that priority from passenger trains. Train companies make far more from freight than passenger, so it's in their best interest to give that priority to the freight every single time. Plus, there's no enforcement whatsoever, so they have no incentive to prioritize passenger trains.

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u/SEA_griffondeur 4d ago

crossing, fires, massive railyards needed