Mexico building rail rival as water shortages drain Panama Canal
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Mexico building rail rival as water shortages drain Panama Canal
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Re: Mexico building rail rival as water shortages drain Panama Canal
#2Re: Mexico building rail rival as water shortages drain Panama Canal
#3So one ship will have to unload on one side and then another ship will have to pick up the cargo on the other end? So the shipping company has to have two ships, one on each side, and wait for the loading and unloading?
I'm sure smarter people than me have worked this out but it seems like this would take a lot longer than the canal (which only takes 8-10 hours vs 7 hours for this train plus load and unload). Granted ships without reservations have to wait 2-20 days to transit the canal right now, but I suspect wait times for cranes at each end of this rail would be about the same as canal wait times if not longer.
Maybe a shipping expert can chime in here?
Re: Mexico building rail rival as water shortages drain Panama Canal
#4So one ship will have to unload on one side and then another ship will have to pick up the cargo on the other end? So the shipping company has to have two ships, one on each side, and wait for the loading and unloading? I'm sure smarter people than me have worked this out but it seems like this would take a lot longer than the canal (which only takes 8-10 hours vs 7 hours for this train plus load and unload). Granted…
Another possible way this project could be beneficial is if the Panama Canal can't widen its locks, and hence this project could enable ships larger than that (which are more fuel efficient / cheaper) to have a far faster and possibly cheaper (depends on their costs, etc.) route.
Re: Mexico building rail rival as water shortages drain Panama Canal
#5Surely this is a mega project:
but naively, what if we built say ten parallel railways 10 ft apart and moved cargo ships over the rails?
Or this guy only needs to be scaled up 10X to do the job. Not outside the realm of imagination? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawler-transporter
I know the ships are huge and it shouldn’t be feasible but it would be interesting to run the numbers.
Edit. Actually if my math is right just four of these guys could transport a fully loaded Panamax ship: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honghai_Crane
Re: Mexico building rail rival as water shortages drain Panama Canal
#6There's already a trans-isthmus railroad running from Atlantic to the Pacific in Panama. There's an oil pipeline as well. The water shortage is not going to get resolved anytime soon and is a result of the third locks project, a project that did not provide for increased water for transits. Another issue is that containers stacked on top of vessel decks are not counted for the purposes of calculating vessel tolls. In essence, they ride for free. Unloading and loading individual containers means someone will have to start paying for their interoceanic trip.
Re: Mexico building rail rival as water shortages drain Panama Canal
#7So one ship will have to unload on one side and then another ship will have to pick up the cargo on the other end? So the shipping company has to have two ships, one on each side, and wait for the loading and unloading? I'm sure smarter people than me have worked this out but it seems like this would take a lot longer than the canal (which only takes 8-10 hours vs 7 hours for this train plus load and unload). Granted…
Given multiple source ports and destination ports having the ability to sort containers is useful. Similar to Fedex/Airline hub and spoke models. Also why there is a huge railyard in North Platte. https://youtu.be/zgpMRY1gAzw?si=-zNXLdLor5bt_0vQ
Re: Mexico building rail rival as water shortages drain Panama Canal
#8So one ship will have to unload on one side and then another ship will have to pick up the cargo on the other end? So the shipping company has to have two ships, one on each side, and wait for the loading and unloading? I'm sure smarter people than me have worked this out but it seems like this would take a lot longer than the canal (which only takes 8-10 hours vs 7 hours for this train plus load and unload). Granted…
Given multiple source ports and destination ports having the ability to sort containers is useful. Similar to Fedex/Airline hub and spoke models. Also why there is a huge railyard in North Platte. https://youtu.be/zgpMRY1gAzw?si=-zNXLdLor5bt_0vQ
This is a good point. They could have multiple rail yards that all feed into the one main transcontinental railroad.
Re: Mexico building rail rival as water shortages drain Panama Canal
#9Surely this is a mega project: but naively, what if we built say ten parallel railways 10 ft apart and moved cargo ships over the rails? Or this guy only needs to be scaled up 10X to do the job. Not outside the realm of imagination? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawler-transporter I know the ships are huge and it shouldn’t be feasible but it would be interesting to run the numbers. Edit. Actually if my math is rig…
Weight wise it looks feasible. The hard part is getting something capable of transferring hundreds of tons that can also conform to hulls of different shapes.
Re: Mexico building rail rival as water shortages drain Panama Canal
#10Surely this is a mega project: but naively, what if we built say ten parallel railways 10 ft apart and moved cargo ships over the rails? Or this guy only needs to be scaled up 10X to do the job. Not outside the realm of imagination? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawler-transporter I know the ships are huge and it shouldn’t be feasible but it would be interesting to run the numbers. Edit. Actually if my math is rig…
I literally just asked that on a different related post.
https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=Solvency#38992883
Anyone?