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by adgjlsfhk1 1532 days ago
Given that trains need tracks, why is it significant added infrastructure to have wires?
1 comments
Manuel_D 1532 days ago
You have to put up wires and a bunch of posts. Googling around, cost estimates are $4.8 million per track-mile [1]. At 140,000 track miles in the US that's $672 billion to electrify the railway network.

Especially if hydrogen becomes very cheap through something like generation through waste-heat from nuclear power plants, hydrogen propulsion may make more sense.

1. https://www.freightwaves.com/news/is-electrifying-the-freigh...

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DoingIsLearning 1532 days ago
> $4.8 million per track-mile

The study you quote is for southern california so that probably is on the high end of an estimate. Probably a different budget for West Virginia.

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hedora 1532 days ago
That's $10K per foot of track, there's no way that is dominated by parts or the actual installation labor.

In other news, one of the maintenance roads for the Golden Gate Bridge was recently completed. Adjusted for inflation, it cost more and took

longer than the bridge itself. If I remember right, one of the bus stops in SF also cost more than the Golden Gate Bridge.

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LargoLasskhyfv 1531 days ago
Peanuts. Just one wasted war less, and it is there.
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