Kinexity t1_isyaxau wrote
Reply to comment by DisasterousGiraffe in Australia can Slash Emissions 81% by 2030 using six Existing Technologies by DisasterousGiraffe
There is seven actually - electric trains. As per Wikipedia 17% of Australian emissions come from transportation and while Australia seems to be quite big on trains their electrification is lacking to say the least. Also while electric vehicles cut down emissions it shouldn't be ignored how resource heavy they are and replacement 1-to-1 of ICEs to EVs isn't the way (not even talking about myriad of other problems EVs inherit from ICEs).
DisasterousGiraffe OP t1_isyhxd6 wrote
> 17% of Australian emissions come from transportation
The latest transport emissions are about 18% of Australia's total emissions and that breaks down to about 10% of total emissions are attributed to light vehicles and trucks and aviation are a large part of the 7% remaining. Train PDF emissions seem very small compared to trucks or aviation.
Kinexity t1_isyjifw wrote
I did not mean that trains are a big contributor because they run on fossil fuels but rather that road and plane traffic needs to be switched to electric trains because while switching to trains will already yield significant emission reduction the emissions from trains will also need to be removed. One could argue that trains could run on hydrogen but that's inefficient and incurs many new problems.
DisasterousGiraffe OP t1_isyysy0 wrote
Yes, I agree, it would be good to move traffic onto electric trains. There are also short-range electric aircraft which could reduce the aviation emissions.
Kinexity t1_isz1jpk wrote
Primary remover of emissions from aviation in Australia should be high speed rail. Not all routes can be replaced by trains (I assume because of the size of australia there is a lot of those small plaines going to many remote locations) but the most emissions come from the busiest routes. Brisbane-Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne-Adelaide high speed rail corridor should be a priority for Australian government. They should reach out to some known operators to get it built quick because 2065 deadline of their current plan (without Adelaide) is a joke. Either Renfe, SNCF or JR (better not CRRC to avoid China dependence) would be probably more than willing to take that contract and do that in half of that time or less.
poukai t1_iszcy59 wrote
Especially Melbourne-Sydney is insanely busy with almost 9.2 million each, it's almost the same as LAX-SFO, JFK-LAX and LGA-ORD combined (10.6 million). Melbourne-Brisbane (3.5 mill) and Sydney-Brisbane (4.8 mill) is also pretty packed too. source (pre pandemic numbers)
A Melbourne-Canberra-Sydney-Brisbane high speed train would have been great. But I don't think the Australian government is going to do yet another feasibility study on that.
laxativefx t1_it1cwo0 wrote
> A Melbourne-Canberra-Sydney-Brisbane high speed train would have been great. But I don’t think the Australian government is going to do yet another feasibility study on that.
No, but the NSW government has announced a thing… not sure if it’s a plan, a study, a plan to plan.
https://www.nsw.gov.au/projects/a-fast-rail-future-for-nsw
At the federal level, labor made commitments to fast rail including $500m to the Sydney to Newcastle route… of course this hasn’t been put through the budget process yet etc just an election pledge.
https://www.alp.org.au/policies/fast-rail-between-sydney-and-the-hunter
poukai t1_it4yvz8 wrote
Thank you for that link, I was completely unaware of that and it was pretty interesting to read. $500m isn't going to amount to much, but atleast they can get some of the planing going.
BrotherEstapol t1_it06geu wrote
I think it's Road Trains (semi-trailers) would be larger contributors than Railway trains. Replacing the diesel trucks with hydrogen powered electric trucks would go a long way, but we need to get green hydrogen generation set up, as well as the refueling infrastructure.
Can be done, but not quickly unless the state and federal governments throw a lot of money at it.
Kinexity t1_it072ol wrote
Australia moves a fuckton of cargo and people by trains already. Road trains are objectively worse in every circumstance except when it costs too much to put railway somewhere and I'll make an educated guess that they don't contribute that much to the problem of emissions as they go to low pop density areas.
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