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Comment by dagw | Hacker News Reader

I agree with him that hydrogen won't be a viable solution for cars in general. However for owners of large fleets of trucks traveling fixed routes I can see it working in many cases.

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I think we should invest way more in trains. They are basically long electric trucks that don't have to bring their batteries with them. All its advantages, with the disadvantage of being on a REALLY fixed route. We should only do last mile with other means of transport

Likely not realistic. Rail in the US, speaking modernly, tends to wind up being an expensive boondoggle even on fairly short routes.

The US has one of the best freight rail networks in the world. It is far from a boondoggle. There is potential to further expand it, and reduce carbon emissions through electrifying tracks.

Passenger rail is a whole separate problem.

How much of that is legacy routes where the cost of securing rights of way, dealing with NIMBYs, etc, is long since sunk? It hasn't gotten any easier.

There are medians in the middle of every freeway in the United States just begging for train tracks.

eHighway[0] anyone?

[0]: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-tests-first-ehighway-autobahn/...

+1. Want energy-efficient, electric-based transportation? Electric trains between major routes, they could even be autonomous, or at least don't need a meat engineer on cockpit. Electric small trucks to carry from hubs to final destinations.

Need more monorails it worked out well for Ogdenville

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