Electric trucks & electric trains

Electric trains and electric trucks both need to play their part in decarbonising transport in New Zealand. But the excitement over new electric trucking technology disguises the clear advantages electric trains have in carrying freight and people on many routes.

A video has just been released showing a demonstration Chinese built Windrose electric truck. Like the US built Tesla electric truck, these trucks can begin to replace our diesel-powered truckling fleet. It should also mark the end of proposals to run trucks on hydrogen.

But will this be picked up by some lobbyists looking for reasons to try to bury rail freight in Aotearoa New Zealand?

As signalled through the 2024 Government Policy Statement on transport, the current government favours roads over rail for carrying freight and passengers over long distances. This has also been indicated in discussions around replacement ferries.

But this is not an economically or environmentally sensible strategy. In contrast, all over the world there is investment going into freight and passenger rail. In our near neighbour Australia, the Victorian Government is investing in the regional rail freight network in order to get more freight on rail.

Trucks are clearly needed for many tasks that trains cannot undertake. For example, driving out to the end of a long rural road to pick up stock or taking logs from remote forests to logging freight hubs. Or smaller electric trucks delivering food to a supermarket from a freight hub. Rubbish trucks picking up bins on urban streets. Or small vans delivering parcels. It is great that these types of trucks will one day be powered by electricity rather than fossil fuels.

But these are not the examples talked about in the video. It is all about taking freight from Auckland to Wellington. Along a route where rail already carries freight and, with investment in new technology and infrastructure, such as a state-of-the-art Bunnythorpe freight hub, could carry more.

While there is excitement about new electric trucks, rail has a long history of electrification. Some countries rail networks are fully electrified, such as Switzerland. This has historically been through the use of overhead lines. But now there are also great advances being made in battery powered trains.

There remain many advantages in using electric trains where possible over electric trucks. The advantages include:

1. Far less renewable electricity required per tonne per kilometre. This is partly due to the greater efficiency of steel wheels on steel tracks but also, and this is important in mountainous New Zealand, trains tracks are designed to cut through hills not to go over them like roads do.

2. Trains save roads from damage from heavy trucks.

3. Trains make roads safer.

4. Each truck needs a driver whereas trains can have one driver to carry loads that would require multiple trucks. Trains with 50 or more wagons are not uncommon in New Zealand.

5. Self-driving trains already exist, although primarily on metro routes. Self-driving freight trains will be operating before self-driving trucks are allowed on our narrow winding roads.

6. With steel wheels, there is not the pollution caused by tyres.

Batteries are heavy. Axle load issues are touched upon in The Future is Rail truck subsidy report. Essentially, the currently envisaged long-haul battery powered trucks will not work on New Zealand roads without; (a) reduced payload, or (b) rebuilt heavier axle load capable roads. Trucks do not fully pay for the lightweight national highway system they currently use, so how is the trucking industry going to be able to pay for roads capable of supporting heavy battery trucks?

While there is much hype about self-driving trucks, it is likely that truck drivers will be required for quite some time. Our truck driver workforce is ageing, and the industry is increasingly likely to rely on migration. It is a tough job, with frequently long periods away for home, night driving, often resulting in an unhealthy lifestyle of limited exercise topped up with fast foods during short breaks.

The train driver environment, due in part to unionisation, is much better. There are very defined hours of work. In modern locomotive design, there is a large amount of human factors analysis and ergonomic inputs into the train driver environment. They are also much better paid and have far more stringent training requirements.

It will also be an easier switch to partial automation through safety enhancements such as ETCS 2, and semi-automated train operation in busy corridors near larger cities such as Auckland and Wellington. There is a strong viable pathway towards fully automated and autonomous train operation underway, that will be implemented in Aotearoa New Zealand, within the next couple of decades.

Electric trucks do have a role to play in New Zealand. But electric trains should be the backbone of the long-haul freight network.