Formendacil t1_iy4r35p wrote
Reply to comment by A40 in 'Landmark achievement': Rolls-Royce and easyJet hail successful hydrogen jet engine test by Wagamaga
Yeah, but Sweden has roughly the same amount of railway per capita, and yet it is 84,2 % electrified, more electrified than South Korea and Japan, whereas Canada is 0,2 % electrified, and Sweden and Canada are roughly as wealthy. Australia is also roughly as wealthy, even sparser, culturally closer, and yet it has large, well used electrified commuter rail systems similar to those in Europe and Asia, whereas Canada does not
A40 t1_iy53y9w wrote
Distances are different. Canada is thousands of miles across and very sparsely populated compared to Europe.
Formendacil t1_iy56nm9 wrote
Firstly, countries such as Sweden, Finland and Norway also have low densities, not all of Europe is is the Rhine valley or Southern England. secondly, most Canadians live in a relatively small part of it anyway, meaning that densities are similar to modestly populated parts of Europe in a lot of Ontario and Quebec. Thirdly, Australia has much more electrification and much more well used passenger rail in spite of being even sparser. Sure, the distance between Perth and Sydney is impractical for high frequency rail, but that doesn’t mean that there can’t be climate friendly, efficient transport in the dense areas
A40 t1_iy5eod7 wrote
I was wondering about gas storage cars on the trains, like old-timey coal tenders. Liquid hydrogen tanks?
Formendacil t1_iy5r9zk wrote
I mean, yeah, sure, maybe, but electrification is a proven, efficient technology. It’s just not as impractical as you make it out to be. It’s used in low density and moderate density areas all around the world with no problem
Xe6s2 t1_iy5rghi wrote
Energy efficient small modular magnetic bottles might work better
FalconX88 t1_iy54lrd wrote
Distances in Canada are much longer, and once most of it runs on diesel there's not really a point to electrifying small parts of it since all the equipment is not made for it anyway.
Formendacil t1_iy589nk wrote
I mean, most countries run on a mix of diesel and electric. Japan isn’t all electric. Both Germany and France are only half electrified. Switzerland is basically the only moderately large network which is entirely electrified
FalconX88 t1_iy59dhl wrote
Again, distances. Easy to electrify a large and heavily used part of the network in Germany or France and then use diesel on the lesser used lines where it doesn't make sense to build the infrastructure. Of course you will then operate a mix of diesel, electric, or hybrid.
If you have distances like in Canada it's not easy to electrify a decent percentage of your rail network and then it makes more sense to just stick primarily to diesel.
Formendacil t1_iy5aznb wrote
If you electrify the Windsor-Quebec city corridor along with the GO-trains and Exo trains, that would be a pretty significant electric system. I can say this for sure, if that kind of corridor existed in the Nordic (except for maybe Denmark) it would without a doubt be electrified, Toronto and Montreal are large cities an intermediate distance apart
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