As an American living in a region with halfway decent (by American standards) public transit, I feel like I hear more comments aligned with the European side than the American side. If public transit has literally any downsides, that’s justification enough to drive for so many people.
passengers getting in and out of you every few minutes. men, women, anyone, hundreds at a time, from cities across the nation? slowly, gently, unceasingly for as long as 20 hours at a time?
thank you for helping me make trains a sex thing. I feel like it’s our last hope.
Although the US and Europe are nearly identical in area, Europe’s population centers are far more uniformly distributed. Big cities in America are mostly around the edges, with a vast, sparsely populated area in the middle. Most intercity train service in America is in that fringe, where the spacing between cities is more like in Europe.
Sure, intercity will never work in the US. Except on both coasts. And upper Midwest. And in a couple mountain and high desert areas. Dammit, that’s like 70% of the population
True, but the post is about trains being on schedule (or showing up at all), not about speed. I wasn’t saying US trains service is as good as European.
No, it’s not a value judgement of any kind. Imagine that - just making an observation with no implications or underlying opinion to swipe left/right on. What a concept.
As an American living in a region with halfway decent (by American standards) public transit, I feel like I hear more comments aligned with the European side than the American side. If public transit has literally any downsides, that’s justification enough to drive for so many people.
if public transit isn’t very good at eating me out, I need to buy a ford T1000 P!E!D!E!S!T!R!I!A!N!M!U!T!I!L!A!T!O!R! and roll coal.
Baby, people call me a 2-8-0 Locomotive. I can take you places that you never thought of.
okay but do you run on overhead wire or third rail power, and how many people can be inside you at once? none of this ‘individual pods’ shit, please.
I’m so hot, I’m constantly steaming. I’m generally a workhouse, carrying all that freight. Moving vast amount of passengers is no sweat for me.
passengers getting in and out of you every few minutes. men, women, anyone, hundreds at a time, from cities across the nation? slowly, gently, unceasingly for as long as 20 hours at a time?
thank you for helping me make trains a sex thing. I feel like it’s our last hope.
If you want people getting off quickly, you want those young, third rail trains.
I’m all about keeping people on for the long haul. I’m all the journey over long distances.
First answer: neither: it runs on coal.
Second answer: 2, fireman and driver
BTW 2-8-0 means 2 leading wheels 8 driving wheels and no trailing wheels.
Like this bad boy:
only if you have capacity for at least several hundred people in you. or several tons of freight.
Not in, behind
Although the US and Europe are nearly identical in area, Europe’s population centers are far more uniformly distributed. Big cities in America are mostly around the edges, with a vast, sparsely populated area in the middle. Most intercity train service in America is in that fringe, where the spacing between cities is more like in Europe.
Sure, intercity will never work in the US. Except on both coasts. And upper Midwest. And in a couple mountain and high desert areas. Dammit, that’s like 70% of the population
And yet we don’t have true hsr in the northeast, where the big cities are…
or california. for… some reason.
True, but the post is about trains being on schedule (or showing up at all), not about speed. I wasn’t saying US trains service is as good as European.
Yeah, I just see that said a lot and think its a bad excuse for having bad service.
Especially when we had much better service 100 years ago, with a fraction of the modern day population.
100 years ago was also before the era of profit hyper-optimization, which it turns out de-optimizes every other aspect of a thing.
Is this a “glass half full” thing? Can a non-existent train never be late or never be in time?
No, it’s not a value judgement of any kind. Imagine that - just making an observation with no implications or underlying opinion to swipe left/right on. What a concept.