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Taras Grescoe 🚇

Sep 18 • 7 tweets • 4 min read

"We'll always need big diesel trucks in our cities to deliver freight. It's just reality."

Not so fast. The electric "Cargo Tram" has long been a fixture in many cities in #Europe.

🧵🚋

The city of #Karlsruhe uses light-rail vehicles and "tram-trains" to carry consumer goods between city-center hubs, which are then delivered by electric cargo bikes.

TramFret employs old trams to shuttle groceries around in the city of Saint-Etienne, #France.

One of the oldest systems was found in the city of Kharkiv, #Ukraine. Starting in 1932 they used miniature electric locomotives to move mainline freight wagons through the streets.

A city in #Roumania, Iaşi, has even launched a "recycling tram" to collect old electronic consumer goods.

„Tramvaiul Reciclării”

More history on Güterstraßenbahn (Cargo or Freight Trams) here:
eurogunzel.com/2018/09/freigh…

Don't get me started on the lost history of cargo transport by electric-powered canal boat! But that's a whole other thread...

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More from @grescoe

Taras Grescoe 🚇

@grescoe

Sep 19

Most of Europe has a serious fossil-fuel addiction problem.
#France is heavy on nuclear.
#Spain + #Portugal—lots of oil.
Coal in the east.

But check out #Denmark (the only place where renewables predominate) and the other Scandinavian countries (hydro).

Similar map for provinces of #Canada, where I live. The West and #Quebec have a lot of water...and thus hydroelectricity.

Not trying to make an invidious comparison here. Canada of course *produces* massive amounts of fossil fuels.

Source: electricvehicles.bchydro.com/about/what-doe…

Read 4 tweets

Taras Grescoe 🚇

@grescoe

Sep 19

By 1920, the network of interurbans in the US was so dense that a determined commuter could hop interlinked streetcars from Waterville, Maine, to Sheboygan, Wisconsin—a journey of 1,000 miles—exclusively by electric trolley.
🧵🚋

The tracks, and often the wires, extended deep into forest and farmland, making the railroads de facto intercity highways; after nightfall in the countryside, farmers would signal drivers to stop by burning a rag next to the track.

Streetcars and interurbans became the dominant mode of urban transportation in North America, carrying 11 billion passengers a year by the end of the First World War.

Read 9 tweets

Taras Grescoe 🚇

@grescoe

Sep 18

Look what year Soylent Green (1973) is set in...

World Population Clock, Sep. 18, 2022.

"...is people!!!"

Read 4 tweets

Taras Grescoe 🚇

@grescoe

Sep 18

In #Europe, scores of places are lowering speed limits to 30 km/h. Almost 200 cities in #France have implemented the measure; traffic deaths in some have decreased by as much as 70 percent.
Meanwhile, Conservative Party in #Quebec campaigns on raising highway speeds to 120 km/h.

More info on the movement in France:

20minutes.fr/bordeaux/32089…

And I'm aware highway/city speed limits are different.
🥱

Just trying to show how tone-deaf this (non-city-tax-paying) would-be politician is.

Read 4 tweets

Taras Grescoe 🚇

@grescoe

Sep 17

Did you know that #Canada had one of world's fastest passenger trains?

The Turbo Train made the run from #Montreal - #Toronto in 3h 59m in 1970.

It could top out at 270 km/h...

@ViaRail

The lat time I took a @ViaRail train to #Toronto it averaged 90 km/h, and took over 5 hours. (Actually it was half an hour late, par for the course.)

Boggles the mind that in the 2020s we don't have frequent high-speed electric rail from #Quebec City to #Windsor. 50% of Canada's population is in the red zone below. People fly and drive instead. Such low-hanging fruit, but no government grasps it.

Read 4 tweets

Taras Grescoe 🚇

@grescoe

Sep 17

Ever heard of the train-tram?

Not the same thing as the tram-train!
A system that lets lightweight trains travel quickly between cities, but also operate on city streets like trams.