Solutionary rail
Subtitle: a people-powered campaign to electrify America's railroads and open corridors to a clean energy future
By: By Backbone Campaign's Solutionary Rail Team (Bill Moyer, director ; Patrick Mazza, editor ; original illustrations by J. Craig Thorpe ; technical team: Robert Briggs, Gerry Callison, Steve Chrismer, Alan Drake, Ron Kaminkow, Bruce McFarling, and Carlo Voli ; book production team: Margot F. Boyer and Cathy Fulton) ; foreword by Bill McKibben
Contributors: Backbone Campaign; Solutionary Rail Team
Publisher: Backbone Campaign
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Vashon, WA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 108
ISBN-13: 9780998096308
Subjects: Railroads; Electrification; Electric railroads; Transportation; Energy conservation; Planning; Environmental aspects
Description: Could railroads, the oldest form of mechanized mass transportation, be the key to unlocking solutions to some of the greatest challenges of the 21st century? Unique among modes of long-haul transport, rail can be electrified. So, why not power trains with renewable energy? Might a clean, modernized, higher-speed rail network draw freight and passengers off the highways and back onto the tracks? Could electrifying the railroads actually open new transmission corridors and increase the supply and reliability of electricity from wind and solar? If the rest of the world is already electrifying their railroads, why isn't the US?. After three years of inquiry with experts and stakeholders, the Solutionary Rail team addresses these questions and more. The Solutionary Rail vision draws unlikely allies together. It provides common cause to workers, farmers, tribes, urban and rural communities via the tracks and corridors that connect them. Solutionary Rail invites railroads into a win-win partnership with We the People. Solutionary Rail charts a path forward to tackle interlocking economic, environmental, and social problems. Part action plan and part manifesto, this book launches a new people-powered campaign to transform the way we use trains and the corridors they travel through. So, echoing the conductor's call, "All aboard!"
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 99-107).
Table of contents: title: Foreword: A genuinely new idea / by Bill McKibben; title: Preface: Rebuilding rail to meet the challenges of the 21st century; title: Rail electrification: a live option; title: Rail electrification's many advantages; title: Restoring a balanced transportation system; title: How to make solutionary rail happen.