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There is nothing more saddening than the state of America’s train situation. It’s like we’re fundamentally incapable of understanding the value of shared infras
by ianks 1y ago
There is nothing more saddening than the state of America’s train situation. It’s like we’re fundamentally incapable of understanding the value of shared infrastructure.
In the rare case that a state escapes the matrix and actually realizes the benefit, we can’t get the damn thing built.
I want a packed bullet train, not a fucking slow private train car.
- sailfast 1y agoIt’s never been shared, FWIW. The rails are mostly privately owned and were built that way too. That said - bullet trains are great but I fully support the ability of individuals to pay to access freight or passenger rail to subsidize the infra.
- rbanffy 1y ago> bullet trains are great but I fully support the ability of individuals to pay to access freight or passenger rail to subsidize the infra. It’d be even nicer if you could hook your private car to a bullet train.
- LargoLasskhyfv 1y agoUnlikely. Because they tend to be close-coupled units with distributed power and traction control. In case of anything Talgo-related with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobs_bogie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobs_bogie 's even more so.
- rbanffy 1y agoIt’d need to be a new stander for rail cars, but that seems totally reasonable.
- jazzyjackson 1y agoLand was granted to the railroads with the agreement that they would run passenger rail services. When passenger rail became so unprofitable that it was bankrupting rail companies, they lobbied to make it the governments responsibility to move people around and leave them to make money shuffling freight.
- bluGill 1y agoMost rails were not land grant. Those were what you read about in history, but most had to buy their own land. Land grant mostly was for places where today almost nobody lives and even less back then.
- bombcar 1y agoThe rails across the (very roughly) Southwest are some of the most famous, but the real activity was all on the East.
- bobthepanda 1y agoIt was kind of a mixed bag. Part of the way this worked was that USPS was actually paying for a lot of the rail services to deliver mail (which is also what the government wanted more so than passenger rail service.) The moment USPS pulled contracts in favor of long-distance airmail the whole model went belly-up.
- ghaff 1y agoAnd long distance airmail subsidized a lot of early flight as well.
- rbanffy 1y ago> There is nothing more saddening than the state of America’s train situation I can come up with a dozen things much more depressing than that and only in federal level politics. This seems to be the most depressing time in US history.
- 0xbadcafebee 1y agoWell there was that whole genocide of Native Americans thing. And that Civil War thing where half the country was killing the other half. Black people were slaves, women couldn't vote (or own property, or a bank account, etc), being gay was illegal, the Irish were the immigrant whipping boys. Then there was the Jim Crow era, WWI, the Depression, Prohibition, WW2, McCarthyism, the Korean War, Vietnam (when the last Jim Crow laws were repealed). But, sure, right now is the most depressing time in US history.
- mulmen 1y agoTo be clear women gained the right to have bank accounts in 1974. American Indian parents didn't gain the right to decide on their children's schooling until 1978. The recency of these atrocities never ceases to surprise me. It's incredible how long we keep up barbaric practices and then how quickly they finally come to an end. Marriage equality in the United States is only 10 years old. Anyone remember the debates as recently as the early 2010s? How many of us have high school diplomas older than any gay marriage certificate in the United States of America? It's absolutely ridiculous to look at arguments made barely over a decade ago about a thing that is now completely normalized and benign.
- laughing_man 1y agoThe legal right to open a bank account in her own name was codified at the federal level in 1974, but that's all it was - codification. Women had already gained that right on a state-by-state basis prior to 1900. It's technically true, but it hides the actual reality.
- 1y ago
- hervature 1y ago> It’s like we’re fundamentally incapable of understanding the value of shared infrastructure. I think most people understand the value of parks, roads, and airports.
- kmeisthax 1y ago[dead]
- barnas2 1y agoStrangely enough, Florida, of all places seems to be having really good success with their Brightline rail network. The initial system runs from Miami to Orlando, with a few stops in between. They're planning on expanding up north and east into the panhandle. Financially things are a bit dicey, but it got built, and it's reliable. Ridership is increasing, which takes cars of the road, and property values in the areas it stops are going up. Meanwhile California doesn't even have their tiny "initial operating segment" built, and is projecting to be up to 3-4x their original budget of 33 billion dollars.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- bilbo0s 1y agoThe only halfway competent rail in the US is that northeast corridor in New England. Everything else is crap. And even that northeast corridor is only halfway competent. That people are raving about any of the rail in the US only betrays a lack of use of many foreign rail services. Particularly those in Asia. It’s sad, because I believe we have the ability to outdo everyone, but we can’t get it done.
- conradev 1y agoHow about the Auto Train? That one seems halfway competent too
- bombcar 1y agoAuto Train is a great train within the constraints of the existing system (turns a passenger train into a car hauling freight and that’s so valuable people take the trade-offs). It could be so much better if we had better rail.
- mulmen 1y agoKind of a bummer comment. At least we're trying. Not quite the same but light rail in Seattle has been enormously successful.
- bluGill 1y agoAmerican trains are the best in the world - at freight. even overall I'd call us rail best in the world - the state of freight rail is that bad in most of the world. of course people see passanger trains and don't think of freight. However that is missing the true picture.
- 4ggr0 1y ago> I'd call us rail best in the world ever heard of Japan or Switzerland or China or ...?
- bombcar 1y agoThe USA moves an incredibly insane amount of bulk goods by rail ridiculously long distances. It’s so insane that it’s probably too cheap and we should do something else, but there are trains full of petroleum because a pipeline hasn’t been built. And if coal is being brought to Newcastle it likely crossed the USA in a bulk train.
- vivzkestrel 1y agonaa, in india we got double stacked container trains fully electrified across 95% of 40000 mile route. you guys are still running on diesel
- bluGill 1y agoThat is a factor in India's favor, but there are a lot of other factors. Overall India just doesn't move that much freight when you examine everything so I still give the point the the US despite things not being perfect. Of course how you weigh the various factors in subjective. The more important take away is there are lots of different things in the world and you should be working on where your weaknesses are not trying to claim you are great despite them. (I'm only claiming US good here in reaction to the passenger focus - I'm aware of plenty of problems with US rail that are not on topic so I'm not giving indication of being aware. I don't know you, hopefully you are honest about the shortcomings of whatever your system is and working on fixing them where it it appropriate)
- FridayoLeary 1y agoThe interstate system was originally built so that the army could move quickly from one place to another in the event of a war. I love how things happen in America.
- bombcar 1y agoConvince Americans that public transit will be needed to mobilize for World War III and we’ll have the best public transit system of ten years flat.
- FridayoLeary 1y agoexactly where my train of thoughts were leading.