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Comment by Ericson2314 | Hacker News Reader

Rail would seem in principle to far and away be the most efficient, so I hope these prices change to reflect that.

Do you mean more efficient than ships? Ships are far more efficient. They can scale up far larger, making for much lower fuel consumption per ton, and don't need to maintain much (or often any at all) infrastructure between terminals. Trains exist just because a substantial minority of the planet's surface isn't covered by water.

Indeed. It's hard to intuit because of the sheer scale of the vessels, but modern container shipping is almost magical in its capacity and efficiency. I once saw an estimate that the cost in resources to transport a container all the way from China to the UK on a ship was actually less than the cost of putting that container on the back of a lorry and transporting it just a few hundred miles to a distribution centre in the midlands once it landed.

while also taking...a good while longer :)

Well trucks are awfully inefficient.

So:

Produce more CO2

Increase Global Warming

Oceans rise

Everything is covered by water

Profit?

Really?! I recall reading something I could not find saying rail was far in away the most efficient.

I'd think the drag of ships in water vs rail in air would also be far, far greater, but I've never taking fluid mechanics and trains do move a lot faster.

Then again one ship can carry as much as 50 trains or so?

Ships are about 2.5x more efficient than trains according to this: http://business.tenntom.org/why-use-the-waterway/shipping-co...

Drag is indeed huge, but so are the ships.

One interesting thing about ships is that drag depends heavily on speed. If fuel efficiency becomes a greater concern, they can go a bit slower to compensate. Of course, that increases other costs....

I'm thinking if we built it train the size of a container ship and rolled it at 15 knots, it would probably be more efficient. But we won't, so I rest my case.

Yeah, I bet ship-sized trains would be more efficient. I think there may be some practical difficulties in building such things though.

Oh yeah definitely. Also cause scaling maybe making decent efficient bearings would be nigh impossible and it still would be less efficient.

I know a recreational motorboat is less efficient than a car by a lot, but...scaling.

Oh engineering with so many trade-offs and sad realities. I'm glad I work in a field of rediculous low-hanging fruit.

What principle is that? Prices reflect reality, not the other way around.

If only willpower were enough to bend prices into personal preferences

Other things affect price besides energy efficiency. Railroads could charge a premium for speed. Also, existing rail routes could be sub-optimal.

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