FREIGHT

Using existing rail rights of way and the interstate highway system, we can create a new, zero-emission, high-speed, “electric highway ” for long-distance freight transport on current trailer-load freight distribution networks. 

The system will include intermodal terminals along the interstate highway system. For example, a local trucker could pick up a trailer from south of Chicago destined for Secaucus, NJ, and drive it to a terminal along I-80. The trucker would drive the trailer onto a FASTRANSIT sled, unhook the tractor and drive off. Terminal operators would secure the trailer to the sled, close the aerodynamic shell of the sled, and enter the destination into the sled’s electronic control system. It would then travel along Fastransit tracks in the I-80 ROW to a terminal in New Jersey, where terminal operators would drive the trailer off the sled to a holding area, where a local driver would pick it up using standard fifth-wheel operations and drive it to Secaucus. An illustration is shown to the left.

FASTRANSIT’s electronic control will allow a fully automated system with short headways between vehicles, with capacity on a single track greater than that of several four-lane highways. In the small portion of the interstate system where medians or spare lanes are unavailable, the system can be accommodated within an existing traffic lane or by constructing an elevated Fastransit lane.

Capital costs for the electric highway will be lower than those for new conventional interstate lanes.Because the maglev sled skis spread out a load more than the tire-to-road contact points of an 18-wheeler, the civil structures to support a loaded vehicle will have considerably lower requirements than those of an interstate highway. Thus existing highway structures will easily accommodate FASTRANSIT, and new overpasses and structures can be built more cheaply. In addition, since heavy trucks cause most of the degradation of interstate highways, moving their payloads to the electric highway will save tens of millions of dollars annually in highway maintenance. 

A full freight load of 60,000 lbs traveling at 65 mph on FASTRANSIT ’s system uses the energy equivalent of approximately 3 1/3 gallons of fuel per hour—a fuel/carbon reduction of over 75% vs. comparably loaded long-haul trucks.

FASTRANSIT’s freight capacity will also revolutionize freight forwarding, by allowing containers to be offloaded onto individual flatcars that could then be sent directly to their destination on the electric highway – no need to wait for a long trainload of containers to be loaded up one by one. This capability will vastly increase the throughput capacity at ports such as Los Angeles/Long Beach, where the Alameda rail corridor from the ports to inland freight terminals is quickly nearing capacity.