At the regular meeting of the Massachusetts legislature in 2023, Brendan Clayton, the former Senate president, proposed to phase out the diesel-powered commuter railway train and realize electric power operation by the end of 2035. The current means of transportation are indeed undergoing electrification reform, but the barriers between them and large means of transportation still exist. Electrification technology is still unable to carry out large-capacity and long-distance transportation. Clayton put forward this proposal last year, and set deadlines and separate construction stages for each line, but it was not accepted by the Committee, At the inauguration ceremony of this year’s new governor, Maura Healey, made a grand outlook on the transportation field. Clinton believed that this was an opportunity to achieve the goal of electrification of public motorcades, and again proposed the electrification reform of large-scale transportation this year.
Clayton took the overhead contact network powered by Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor high-speed train as an example, demonstrating the feasibility of using the overhead contact network compared with the use of large-capacity battery-driven locomotives.
The civil society has also set up a railway electrification committee to promote the use of electricity as the main driving force of domestic railway transportation and as the driving force of grid integration and innovation.
The reform of railway electrification is still being pushed forward, while the government has supported the popularization of electric bicycles.
The bill of Representative Natalie Blais proposed to create a statewide grant plan to help municipalities, enterprises or non-profit organizations distribute electric bicycles to families or use them as part of a bicycle sharing plan.
The sales of electric bicycles in the United States exceeded the sum of electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles last year. Moreover, the charging infrastructure is becoming more and more perfect, and bicycle lanes are becoming more and more popular. Some people even propose to build infrastructure similar to expressway for bicycles, and the construction of bicycle lanes also improves the riding safety. Since 2017, 68% of the trips of Amsterdam residents to work and school are by bike, of which bicycles account for 36% of all traffic flow.
European and American countries have given great support to electric transportation products, directly promoting the share of electric bicycles in the transportation field, and the reform of electrification has penetrated into the entire transportation field. Maybe the trains and planes we will take in the future will use electric energy.
