• tobogganablaze@lemmus.org
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    6 months ago

    There is many small ferries in the UK which are basically a floating platform that get’s dragged through the water on a cable. If you run that off an electric motor those can be quite efficent.

    Maybe they are thinking about those.

    • somethingsnappy@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      What is producing the electricity? If it’s clean energy, maybe. It shouldn’t be “thinking about those,” but rather trying to compare similar load to energy cost per person. If the underground, rail, etc can’t beat something that has to push through water that doesn’t really make sense.

      • tobogganablaze@lemmus.org
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        6 months ago

        What is producing the electricity?

        That question can be applied to all the electric forms of transportation of the chart though.

        But if we assume it’s the about the same energy mix as for the tube or trams, then it isn’t that surprising. Volecity is major factor in the drag equation and ferries move very slow but have high capacity, so even with the additional drag, moving on cables should be closer to rail efficency than to a ship which has to use propellers.

        It’s still odd that it’s below those other two, but I would have assumed they are in the same ballpark.