P.E.I's school bus electrification paused due to receivership

[Dinoburner]

Still trying to understand why moving students to the front of the bus while climbing a hill makes a difference.

 

[y_p_w]

Still trying to understand why moving students to the front of the bus while climbing a hill makes a difference.

Not sure why, but it helped. This was back in the early 80s and the local bus company was running mostly GM New Look, but was also phasing in Gillig Phantoms. There was a particularly steep hill along the route. A driver would ask for as many passengers to move to the front and we started moving better.

 

[RAVL]

I'll try to ignore the first few parts because I know any response in kind is going to result in moderation. That being said, I'm thinking I should respond to the rest of this because this is going to get locked.

But I will respond to you about your last point. The best thing for freight locomotives would be pure electrification operating off of catenaries. Maybe some small battery backup.

The Europeans rely heavily on cantenary for trains and buses (as well as city light rail). It is an effective solution to ground level pollution but is costly to install and maintain, and is generally not compatible with cities that have a heavy auto presence. Cantenary for freight is not cost effective. The Pennsylvania Railroad tried decades ago and stopped at Harrisburg after doing the NE corridor. No other railroad have really tried it since, with perhaps the Milwaukee Road 75 years ago. There is a reason for that - cost effectiveness. Plus if you look into European freight logistics you will learn that the size of European freight operations is completely dwarfed by railroads like UP, BNSF, NS, etc. Their freights look like toys next to what the US class 1 railroads haul in a single consist. I am not aware of a commercially available cantenary powered locomotive that can perform that function. The old GG1s were powerful and could handle freight but a modern equivalent does not exist in the US because there is no demand - it is a solution in search of a problem.