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Carbon Reduction in Transportation Thanks to an Ultra-high-speed Passenger and Freight Transport Solution

Carbon Reduction in Transportation Thanks to an Ultra-high-speed Passenger and Freight Transport Solution
photo: TransPod/Carbon Reduction in Transportation Thanks to an Ultra-high-speed Passenger and Freight Transport Solution
09 / 11 / 2022

Gas emissions present a significant problem in today’s world. Canada, as a country with the second largest area in the world, participates in this issue by not using enough electric transport as other developed countries. The new project Fluxjet could be a magnificent change.

It goes without saying that transportation is responsible for more than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, thus transportation has been identified as a key issue in achieving many regions’ net zero emissions goals by 2050. The electrification of transportation is certainly needed.

It is not all about electric cars, though. For example, the European Commission is focusing on rail and, in 2021, launched the European Year of Rail. As Europe transitioned to a developed rail network, including high-speed trains, many years ago, about 60 % of their railways have electrified.

Interestingly, Canada is significantly lacking behind most developed countries such as Greece or Romania, where they have already electrified more than 30 % of their railroads, whereas Canada falls short with less than 1 % of electric railways in the nation.

The situation regarding passenger transport is fine. The issue appears in Canadian freight trains run by Canadian National (CN) and Canadian  Pacific (CP), where they are responsible for more than 95 % of the annual rail tonne-kilometres of the Canadian rail industry and continue to operate on burned diesel.

This is one of the reasons why a Canadian company is working on developing the so-called FluxJet, anaerospace vehicle meant to transport passengers and freight between cities at remarkable speed. They are environmentally friendly as they are completely electric and do not require any fossil fuels to operate.

For example, the journey between Edmonton and Calgary in the province of Alberta will be reduced to 45 minutes compared to the current 3-hour trip by car. Thanks to solar energy as the main source of power for this line, the project would avoid approximately 363,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions per year in comparison with the previous 22 million tonnes of CO2e. It is a huge step for Canada in the right way to minimalize greenhouse gases.

Sebastien Gendron, the CEO of TransPod, said that when they mentioned a hypothetical line between Toronto and Montreal at their inauguration event last June, the audience literally applauded. Expectations are apparently very high.

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