Talk:Rail freight transport

Disambiguation
I'd suggest a disambiguation: There is also a song called "freight train" by Elizabeth Cotten. . --84.174.251.22 20:53, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

What is average speed of train when traveling?
I couldn't find the average speed of a freight train while moving, on this page or on rail transport. 72.48.75.131 (talk) 19:11, 20 November 2010 (UTC)


 * How long is a piece of string? G-13114 (talk) 05:16, 9 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I found this source:, page 211, on timetable planning guidelines used by dutch railways. Goods trains are expected to use standard paths, calculated for a cruising speed of either 85 or and reasonable acceleration and deceleration. To get some room to compensate for delays, they must be able to run a bit faster than that. 110 km/h seems quite normal. PiusImpavidus (talk) 13:49, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Another named train
The Washington State USA Grain Train. Description easy to find via Google.

Requested move 23 February 2022

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: Not Moved Mike Cline (talk) 15:36, 5 March 2022 (UTC)

Rail freight transport → Freight train – This article was originally under the name Freight train, before it was unilaterally moved to Freight rail transport without any discussion in 2009 and then later to the present title. I would like to gauge community consensus as to if rail freight transport is really a better title than freight train. I believe there is a strong argument in favor of the title freight train per WP:COMMONNAME. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 23:50, 23 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Oppose. The current title matches the current scope of the article - the concept of moving freight by rail including things like logistics, types of freight, transhipment, trainload vs wagonload freight, etc. An article titled Freight train should be an overview of the types of trains used to convey freight on railways though history - what characteristics are desirable, what that means in terms of design, etc. I haven't looked to see if we have such an article, but if we don't then we certainly should. Thryduulf (talk) 11:54, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
 * There is no article for freight train. It just redirects here. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 23:16, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Then we should write one. Thryduulf (talk) 23:21, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
 * To be honest, it hadn't occurred to me that articles could exist for both topics, but now that I think about it I see the merit of this idea. The only issue will be figuring out which pages that link here should actually link to freight train. I can write something up, I will start it in userspace and then have it moved over the redirect (after all, I already started Passenger train). This is a better solution than moving the title of this article. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 23:45, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Now in progress at User:Trainsandotherthings/sandbox2. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 01:21, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Note the hatnote at the top of this page will need moving to the new article when it's published, we'll probably want to add new hatnotes to both articles pointing at the other. There are also quite a few redirects that will need updating (e.g. Goods train) but I've made sure that they're all appropriately marked. Thryduulf (talk) 12:20, 25 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Oppose. The whole concept of moving freight by rail is preferable to parts of it. Taylor 49 (talk) 20:16, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Support, second choice split. I don't see any reason why the scope of a "freight train" article wouldn't include what a freight train does (that is, the "transport" side), that seems just obvious in the same way that Lawn mowing is covered at Lawn mower.  (It sounds like TAOT may be up for doing the split anyway, which would render this question moot.)  I suspect that if the article is split, pageviews will hugely favor the natural "freight train" article, so I'd still recommend a move and the "freight train" article still including a fair amount about transport, even if there's a subarticle with the details at the current article name.  SnowFire (talk) 21:09, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
 * It depends. If you redirect "freight train" to "rail freight transport" than the latter will win in pageviews (it already does). People are lazy to type and always search the shortest string. Pageviews do "hugely favor" the "natural" Putin compared to longer "President Putin" plus "Tsar Putin" together. The argument with "pageviews will hugely favor the natural" is inherently invalid. Taylor 49 (talk) 21:40, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I guess I should clarify. That sentence was just a side thought for what the situation likely would be if there were two separate articles, not a direct argument about this move.  If you believe that the "transport" aspect is important and the article is split, then I was arguing that it should still be covered at the shorter title, is all.  SnowFire (talk) 22:15, 25 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Comment First of all, I have left a neutral notice at WT:TRAINS . Now, as to the arguments raised so far, I am uncertain which I find more persuasive. I brought this move request primarily to revisit this move which happened over a decade ago and was never discussed, but the additional question of "can we have both Rail freight transport and Freight train as separate articles?" has now been raised. I am not entirely convinced it makes sense to have articles for both. My main concern is how would we define the scopes of the two articles to be distinct enough to ensure both are not largely covering the same thing? At present, we have an article for Passenger train, but no article for Passenger rail transport, which redirects to a section in Rail transport (though I will note that passenger train was split off of Train in November and is still a fairly new standalone article). I did start a draft in my sandbox for a potential freight train article, but I'm not about to move it to mainspace until we decide how to proceed here. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 20:25, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Freight trains are a subtopic of rail freight transport, so if we have one article it should be at this title. However I think there is clearly scope for two articles.
 * This article should cover:
 * The broad concept and history of moving fright on railways
 * The types of freight
 * Shipment and transhipment methods and facilities
 * Containterisation
 * Freight tonnage per country/region, etc.
 * The article at Freight train should cover:
 * The vehicles (locos and wagons), their types, history and characteristics (e.g how they differ from passenger trains with greater tractive effort and lower top speed)
 * Thryduulf (talk) 20:35, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Oppose move per Thryduulf. Whether the article needs to be split is another question, but the overall article on this topic should be at this title, since clearly "freight train" is a subtopic. RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 22:29, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.