Featured The coming electric vehicle transformation

I've always heard it called DCFC.

 

In 1968, I spent a tour in Germany when I was in the military. I fell in love with the German rail system. It could take you across town, to any other city or any country for that matter in comfort and convenience. 30 years later one of the perks of my job was that I was asked to present training in many of the cities of Europe. The rail system was smoother, quieter, mostly electrified and some segments are now high speed rail.

When I think of being stuck single file with a million other drivers in traffic around Columbus waiting for them to clear the inevitable accidents, I can't help but think that we missed the boat uh train when we decided that 270 million personal vehicles was the way to go. It seems like we can never build enough lanes to handle the traffic. Don't get me wrong, most European countries have good highway systems and you can drive if you choose but when you want to take a trip and don't want to be stressed by driving, just buy a train ticket.

Before someone says that our country is too spread out for trains to be effective, the distance from Lisbon to Moscow is over 2500 miles and you can make that trip in comfort on a train.

 

I was in Frankfurt for just a month in 2011 and came to appreciate their 5 separate train systems. My hotel was an easy walk from the Hauptbahnhof. It was yet another example of how much better things can be done...

 

I was watching a broadcast of the 1970's television series Cannon.
And I was amazed at the cars.
Cannon evidently drove a Lincoln Continental and it was HUGE. It was amazing to just watch it in motion. The hood, engine area, seemed enormous, the "cabin" looked like a living room, and the trunk was large enough to rent out as an apartment.

I was a little kid through that time period.
But just how cheap was gasoline? Because that vehicle had to burn it in massive quantities. It must of had a huge gas tank, otherwise

I guess my meandering point is a lot has changed. And coming Electric Vehicle Transformation? Yeah...I buy it. Maybe not so far in the future people will watch shows with vehicles with smoking tailpipes and be just as astonished as I was by the HUGE vehicles of the 70's.

 

I had to do a presentation in Zurich in 2001. Since it was the week of our 25th wedding anniversary, I took a week of vacation in advance of my presentation week and my wife accompanied me on the trip. We took a day trip by train to a mountain lookout of the Jungfrau.

There was a Swiss college age girl sitting in the open compartment across the aisle from us. She had books spread out on the seats. My wife spoke to her and she said that she was doing her homework. She said that sometimes she gets bored doing her homework in her room at home and just hops on a train to enjoy the scenery. I don't know how Swiss citizens pay for their transport. Maybe an annual travel pass or it may be included in their taxes.

Most of our trip was on a regular train but when you reach the base of the mountain, you switch trains to a special train for the last of the trip. The train must ascend/descend steep sections of track and they have a gear rack mounted in the center of the rails and there is a gear under the engine that meshes with that gear rack to pull the train up the steep incline to the station at the top of the mountain. I believe they call it the cog train. Swiss/German innovation.

On another visit, I went to Milan. My wife saw an article in the Columbus Dispatch about Bolzano the week before we left. The author said it was the most beautiful city in Europe. My wife and I took the 2 hour train ride to Bolzano.It is in the Italian Alps and it is very beautiful. We got back on the last train for Milan a half hour early just to be safe. While we were waiting about 15 men on bicycles rode past our car. The car was divided into part baggage compartment and part passenger compartment. The men boarded our car and you could hear all this chatter in Italian. The men were undressing from the riding outfits to day clothes. It made my wife uncomfortable but I explained to her that the Italians are not bashful and it looked like 3 generations of a family that had come to the mountains to ride their bikes and now they were returning to the city. Picture of train station included.

My hope is that one day, the U.S. may have an efficient working train system. That would be the real electric revolution. It would certainly unload the highways. I probably won't see it in my lifetime but I can always hope.