this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
174 points (100.0% liked)

traingang

22869 readers
63 users here now

Post as many train pictures as possible.

All about urbanism and transportation, including freight transportation.

Home of train gang

:arm-L::train-shining::arm-R:

Talk about supply chain issues here!

List of cool books and videos about urbanism, transit, and other cool things

Titles must be informative. Please do not title your post "lmao" or use the tired "_____ challenge" format.

Archive links for reactionary sites, including the BBC.

LANDLORDS COWER IN FEAR OF MAOTRAIN

"that train pic is too powerful lmao" - u/Cadende

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
174
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
all 30 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I took an amtrak from El Paso to Austin one time, took well over two days. I got to the train station early because I heard it was unpredictable; they were four hours late. They stopped overnight in San Antonio for absolutely no reason. Later I realized flying would have been cheaper.

It's like a 10-12 hour drive if I remember correctly, it's been a few decades but I still remember how much the whole ordeal pissed me off, having come from a country with functional rail.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago

Dang that sounds exactly like Argentina lmao, except the 700km-24hours-train-trips are dirty cheap

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 years ago (2 children)

yeonmi-park and in capitalist america the trains crash round the clock, you can set your watch to a derailment.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago

Brandon made the trains derail on time.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago

Except in capitalist America the people are decadent and weak and cannot push the train.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Is this just the second Amtrak derailment of the year or am I forgetting a third?

edit: IT WAS A TRUCK THAT DID IT 😠

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I wish the NTSB's scope would expand. A truck fucking up a train requires that the root cause be addressed so no truck will fuck up a train in the same way again. But that won't happen because trucks are sold as freedom machines.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

But that won't happen because trucks are sold as freedom machines.

That isn't it at all. It's not truck driver "freedom" in the way but the freight railroad companies not wanting to be told they need to remove at-grade crossings. It's because removing an at-grade-crossing is expensive and puts tracks out of commission for a few days minimum.

https://railroads.dot.gov/program-areas/highway-rail-grade-crossing/highway-rail-grade-crossings-overview

To fix this problem you have to rebuild either the road or tracks to go over or under each other. Only US area this is being done is California where the State Government has been removing at-grade crossings, with each removal often requiring a long drawn out lawsuit between the State and freight railroads. California has been doing it for almost a decade now in preparation for high speed rail (real high speed rail, not that shit advertised as high speed rail on the East Coast and Florida).

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 years ago

Capitalism, crashing trains 24/7

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Is it consensus that Amtrak is bad on purpose so that Americans won't demand more trains

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 years ago

Amtrak is bad because it shares rail with freight so it's slow as shit, has to wait for other non-passenger rail to pass, and has to operate on rail intended for maximum speeds of the 1800s. It takes 3-4 days to get halfway across the country. This is before we consider how few places it connects.

It is also, somehow, expensive. More expensive than flying. Sometimes 2-3X as much.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago

It's bad because the freight rail companies own the tracks and don't give a shit about safety along with Amtrak being a weird quasi-governmental organization with neoliberal profitability drive.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 years ago

Damn, with optimism like this, Maya would make a killing as a spin doctor in DC

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Complimentary mini water bottles should settle it.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago

In communist China they give out treats simply for delayed trains

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

Optimistic Liquid Event.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Still 14x safer than cars/trucks?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I never would've guessed Ferryboats are pulling those numbers

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I can imagine lots of that is people going overboard, falling over and hitting their head, etc, and the fact that far fewer people take ferries than take rail.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They are almost all private operators and lack the close oversight passenger airlines and municipal mass transit are subjected to. Under trained, low wage, poorly maintained, and carrying sometimes in excess of a thousand passengers.

Less people take ferries each year compared to buses, trains, and aircraft but every few years there is a ferry disaster that kills hundreds of people all at once.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Damn - yeah that sounds sketchy as hell.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

maybe a mixture of low ridership and drowning?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

Well they certainly would be riding low if passengers start drowning.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

You get incidents like the MV Sewol once every few years which is like 300+ fatalities over night, then pretty frequent minor sinkings in more calm waters with just a few deaths, and then regular overboards where people just fall in and no one notices.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago

Looks like this accident was caused by a truck too shrug-outta-hecks

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago

My experience was booking a trip months in advance, only to have them completely cancel all routes between me and my destination until further notice with no alternative for transportation

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago

forever dreaming about getting derailed in a cute lil sundress

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

Maya's a trooper fr. Couldn't be me.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

pete pepsi We good now?