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The GTS is based on three key principles: • the use of the natural relief of the landscape as much as possible and a parsimonious use of the potential energy; • the use of the most energy-efficient rolling mode; • the transportation of loads only. GTS: an extremely energy-efficient and economically profitable system The combination of these three principles makes the GTS an extremely energy-efficient system of transportation. Indeed, for any given journey, and whatever the type of route (downward, horizontal or upward route), the energy required by the GTS only represents 1 to 6 % of the energy consumption of a truck transporting the same quantity of goods. The analysis of the best adapted routes, carried out by a topography company, revealed that defining GTS routes is easy, and that such routes are only slightly longer than the route of highways. But building a GTS line is also markedly cheaper than building a highway. Subsequently, the cost per ton transported/km is also extremely low. The GTS is thus an extremely profitable transportation system from an economic point of view. Because of its extremely low energy consumption, the system also has obvious ecological assets. First principle - Use of the natural relief of the landscape and parsimonious use of potential energy
By contrast, the route of the GTS track will be defined so as to lift the load only to the height necessary to cover the difference in altitude and the distance between the two points. The load will be lifted by stages, on small ascending sections equipped with driving devices, and it will then roll freely on the downward slopes. Indeed, a load placed on steel wheels rolling on steel rails with a 4/1000 slope will acquire a constant speed of about 40 km/h without any need to push it or brake it. In other words, on such a slope, a load lifted to a height of 4 m will then run on a one-kilometre distance at a speed of about 40 km/h without any additional input of energy. Second principle - Use of the most energy-efficient rolling mode The GTS uses steel wheels on a steel rail; this is currently the rolling mode with the lowest energy consumption. Third principle - Transportation of loads only In addition to the weight of its load, a truck must also move its own weight; the same can be said of a locomotive and its wagons. Such weight is far from insignificant; for example, a 30-ton truck in fact transports about 15 tons of goods, the 15 other tons being the weight of the truck itself. By contrast, the weight to be moved with the GTS is markedly lower, due to two main factors. • First, since the driving devices ("engines") can be carried by the rails themselves, in the ascending sections of the track, they need not be transported: there is no more heavy-weight truck or locomotive to move. • Secondly, unlike what is for example the case with a train wagon, which is submitted to strong pulling and compression forces when the train accelerates or brakes because the wagon must "support" all the other wagons of the train, GTS transporting devices are independent from each other. Consequently, they are not submitted to such forces and can thus be much lighter. |
