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Wait, you guys have trains?
fast ones, we have slow ones, that are often on edge of collapse.
Wait, you guys have trains?
Depending on whether the stars are right. Or whether you need to cross the tracks - there’s always one when you need to cross the tracks.
there’s always one when you need to cross the tracks.
This, but you ever notice that it’s pretty much never passenger trains? This efficient mode of transportation is largely designed for and used by industry rather than for travel or commute. The exception is within big enough cities like DC and NYC to get from one side of the city to the other or anywhere between. Sure there are some trains that go between cities, but they’re largely unreliable because passenger cars yield to industrial freight, and so people are less inclined to opt for them over planes or cars, and so there are fewer trains available to go wherever you’re going in the window you’re trying to go. So you book a flight instead.
I’d take a long train ride over a road trip any fucking day. I don’t understand anybody who would rather drive than chill and read a book or play games or watch movies or nap.
Exactly, it’s not that the US doesn’t have trains, there are plenty. Lots of relatively small towns have rails going to or through them. The problem is that only a tiny fraction of them are passenger rail.
This, but you ever notice that it’s pretty much never passenger trains? This efficient mode of transportation is largely designed for and used by industry rather than for travel or commute.
Yet massive amounts of goods are shipped long-distance via truck anyway, clogging up highways and polluting far more per-ton and per-mile moved.
Truly the worst of both worlds! USA! USA! USA!
Got it, always cross the tracks
Stand on the tracks to summon the train.
The train needs a human sacrifice
Oh yeah, we have so many trains. They go everywhere, we have a very comprehensive network of them
Oh wait… Did you mean passenger trains?
We have trains that have lethal derailments every year or so.
Man, I wish we had a working maglev train over here.
As a taxpayer you really don’t.
The estimated cost of construction of the maglev line in Japan is a bit less than 10% of the yearly U.S. military budget. The Northeast Corridor is about 10% longer, so let’s round that to 11%. And I would be surprised if that infrastructure would not be used at least partially 100 years after construction.
Keep in mind that the proposal is to buy the technology from the SCMaglev people, which is something IIRC they indicated they were supportive of doing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Maglev
It’s currently stuck in an indefinitely paused environmental review as far as I can tell, due to no one caring about it I guess
I am staunchly anti-maglev for different reasons. Firstly, it’s incompatible with other systems. Building it is expensive as hell because of the awkward way you have to build the rails of magnets which the train will then glide upon. Since every centimetre of the train needs magnets to be floating above the rails, the trains themselves are incredibly short and expensive for their capacity. Short version, you need a lot more trains, which are significantly more expensive for the same capacity of a normal train. A hundred years sounds impressive, but for example, a railway tunnel with conventional rails has only the drive wire and the rails, which will need to be exchanged in the future. The tunnel itself can be easily used for hundreds of years most states calculate with 200 though. Speed isn’t everything, capacity is. The Austrian railjet only drives 230 km/h because you don’t need to make the train airtight, meaning for 2 million (2008 money) plus two eurosprinters (5 mil a pop, todays money) you get 500 meters of railjet, which can transport approximately 1,400 people. Also, the railjet can just be separated into two 250m trainsets and the go into two completely different directions. All of these are benefits that Maglev hasn’t got. It’s more expensive and can do less. But it does go fast, admittedly. But at what cost is this speed gained? And is it really the most important thing if 250 people can reach something twice as fast as a contemporary high-speed train? Also, the French TGV has proven it can go 575 km/h, So even in that regard, if you were to reduce it to the engines in the front and the back in a single passenger car, you basically have Maglev, but for a fraction of the price.
I would be surprised if the French TGV can go into tunnels at those speeds, or maintain them safely 24-7. Also, the 100 years figure is one I completely made up based on what I’ve seen from conventional trains, I have no idea how long maglev track actually lasts.
Also, the scmaglev is advertised to be able to hold up to 728 people in the 12 car configuration, and can probably reach high frequencies similar to the rest of the shincansen system.
Speed matters for people to actually want to use trains, and maglevs are supposed to be both much faster and even more comfortable than conventional rail. They are a proven technology by this point.
Yes, it’s not cheap, but it has the ability to significantly improve rail service in the northeast, and as the richest country in the world surely we should be able to afford that.
The other argument I’ve seen is that we have to go through all of the trouble and lawsuits around obtaining a new right of way anyways, even for normal high speed rail, so we may as well put the best technology available there.
At least they alleviated the capacity problem of the system. But since you are talking about the USA, you have high quality rail treansport almost everywhere in the EU but the USA dismantled their own railway system and essentially reduced it to a trailing exhibition. Why should now a new system that is even more expensive, succeed, while the old system, which was real world tested for 200 years, was defunded and dismantled?
In my opinion, the real issue in the USA are the politics. As you said, speed and comfort is important for people who actually want to go somewhere, but driving a train where you just board it and set off is faster and more comfortable than a car, and at least more comfortable than an aeroplane. Again, the USA have destroyed what they had previously. Why should a new system fix this social problem? Because it is a social and not a technological problem, look at the EU. Also the company wanted to open commercially in 2030, they still lack the environmental feasibility study. Let’s just call that date optimistic.
Genuinely, I want to be wrong about this, but the signs are there.
I agree that it’s a political problem, but I think that a modernized rail system would be well-used if it were available.
I would be shocked if they actually start building the northeast maglev. Happy, but shocked.
Guess what, I am a taxpayer and you can’t tell me what I “really don’t” want. Do you think i have come here from the stone age to not know that infrastructure and services cost money?
The reason I said it is because there are alternatives which are significantly cheaper and more effective. Maglev is expensive, shit ROI and massive downsides over conventional high-speed rail, namely system complexity and maintenance. Short version: expensive AF.
Edit: I’ve made another comment below. Also the French TGV has proven it can go 575 kilometers per hour, why not make regular trains even faster? It would be cheaper, would achieve the same thing and keeps the benefits of regular trains. There are always multiple approaches to the same problem, and the flashiest solution is seldom the best.
I’m well aware that rail/wheel tech works well. However
It would be cheaper
is not true. High speed rail is precision engineering and what you gain from the reduced complexity of not having magnets on the rails is lost by the required precision to make trains as fast as you claim them to be. The cost for a Transrapid line was claimed to be pretty much on par with an ICE line, with trains carrying fewer people but on a higher frequency, so even that would have evened out. The advantage you claim, which is compatibility to existing rail networks, can be regarded as a disadvantage, too, as high speed trains suddenly compete for the same limited resource as all other trains in the network and are sometimes travelling quite slowly as they utilise the same, old rails because the pain of using the old network isn’t big enough to make people build new high speed infrastructure. Add to that the issue of too many stops that are added for political reasons and high speed trains suddenly become less and less of a competitive player when it comes to international traffic. If there was another network that would simply be incompatible to existing ones, a lot of these issues wouldn’t even arise. A Transrapid just wouldn’t stop in Erkelenz, Züssow or Altenbeken and no overly confident mayor could even suggest it, simply because there wouldn’t be the infrastructure. And that would be a good thing.
Also, the speed comparison is not that simple. You’re comparing wheeled trains that took decades to evolve with the first generation of maglev trains and as far as I see, that’s also the highest speed recorded, which isn’t what they’re allowed to do during regular operations. I highly doubt that there’s no room for improvement to get faster for maglevs.
All that said, I’m well aware that “the train has passed”. Europe uses wheels and I’m fine with that. I don’t want to sound overly negative and I’m happy for every cm of rail that’s built. It’s just that high speed rail needs to up its game a bit if they want to compete with planes. Right now, they’re still too slow. Next week I’ll be in Italy for a conference… High speed trains would have taken 4 to 5 times as much time, so I ended up getting a plane ticket booked. That’s a pity and had we built a maglev infrastructure 20 years ago, maybe it would have been better by now.
That’s an interesting take on it. Thanks. :)
Me When My metro train (Santiago) doesn’t immediately arrive as soon as i touch the platform.
Which eu countries? Most of eu countries are on second meme
From my small experience as an a American. Netherlands had some really reliable transit. Never had a problem in France though definitely not as nice as Netherlands. Italy was definitely hit and miss depending on the city but loved the high speed rail from Naples to Rome. Germany was reliable during October Fest so I assume at least Munich is reliable if it was good at that time. Though I wouldn’t say I used much in Germany.
Other countries I’ve been to but I’ll just list cities for these because I didn’t go much anyone else for them: Prague, Budapest, Vienna
I can’t say there was a single country/city here that had transit that was worse than the best transit in the US. Was it all perfect? No. But compared to fucking Amtrak that literally has to stop for hours at a time while we wait for other freight trains to pass. Literally multiple times during a single train ride.
Some countries may not be the first meme. But what major city in Europe has worse local transit than say Chicago or New York? Or worse heavy rail than Amtrak? Just honestly asking.
I don’t think anything could be worse than Amtrak.
You mentioned 4 - 5 EU countries, even major cities. You are missing other 22 countries. Not going too far like mentioning Romania, but have you ever tried Renfe en Madrid? Hehehe it fails many times
On the contrary, when I lived in the US on Long Island, a part of the country where people warn life without a car is impossible, I had a great transit experience. Buses were generally on time, modern and equipped with live tracking, and the trains were great too.
I know LI’s relative poor transit options are mostly in comparison to other areas in the Northeast, which is a densely populated region. I imagine my experience would be totally different in the Midwest or the Prairies. And that’s especially true for trains – LI is awesome in that regard
Deutsche Bahn has entered the chat.
DB doesn’t hold a candle to VIA Rail. Germans and Europeans in general like to mock DB, and with reason, but as a Canadian, I’m still so very jealous of DB.
Due to [these] restrictions, 80 per cent of trips suffered delays of more than 10 to 15 minutes in February between Quebec City and Windsor, where the majority of Via trains operate. In January, 67 per cent of trains were late on the same corridor. Delays have been even greater between Quebec City and Ottawa this year, affecting 94 per cent of trains last month and 86 per cent in January.
DB uses this novel trick to avoid delays: they simply don’t count trains that don’t run at all as delayed. And then they also sometimes cancel trains for being delayed. They simply turn the train around before reaching it’s final stop so at least it’s somewhat on time running the other way.
Too early
As a DB user: “ha!”
50 minutes late due to a door malfunction.
American’t build a railway system worth a damn.
We already did!…And then we tore it down to make our interstate highway system. Any remaining tracks turn into museum exhibits we call “rail trails”.
That’s just sad.
This shit keeps me up at night while I play STALKER. America feels like the Zone sometimes; nobody’s in control, there’s a tendency to romanticize our shitty trashcore setting, everyone’s just living get-rich-quick scheme to get-rich-quick scheme, and there’s bloodsuckers and pigs everywhere. At least the zone is pedestrian-pilled.
Portugal is in America 😂😂😂😂😂 and it’s gotten way worse since the pandemic
American here: yeah, not far off.
You clearly havent heard of swedish trains.
The railroad here is a bad joke at this point, mainly due to shutting down the organization that was responsible for maintainence and shoving it into another agency that has no clue. As a bonus the new agency doesn’t even do the repair work themselves but hires contractors at the lowest bidder. So stuff breaks constantly, which causes delays.
At this point just getting the rail network to “normal” standards would cost billions. Let alone expanding it to cope with current traffic levels.
To be fair, most higher density areas in Sweden have fairly good infrastructure for public transit. The national railways are a disgrace, but that mostly affects long distance travel. Mostly. Short to medium distance commute works fairly well everywhere I’ve tried it.
[cries in Swedish]
Scandinavia has more in common with Canada when it comes to public transportation
Canada has high speed trains?
Their trains break down a lot and it’s a bigger joke
I’m literally riding the Shinkansen in Japan right now as I come across this meme.
Is that the one known for its reliability and stuff? Like, seconds-granularity reliability?
That very same one. It is also very fast and covers vast distances, yet the ride is smooth and comfortable.
Awesome, would love to try it sometime in my life. I live very far away unfortunately.
Same here; I live across the world. Usually, I mean. As a visitor in Japan however, I can confirm that their public transit system is every bit as convenient and efficient as we’ve been lead to believe internationally. Believe the hype.
🥹 Really is one of my bucket list items, to travel to the far east one day. Preferably Japan. Seems very beautiful.
I sincerely wish you good luck and hope you can make the trip someday! Visiting Japan has been a life long dream for my wife and I, and we are having an amazing time here. I only wish we could stay.
Thank you kind stranger. You deserve the indulgence!
Japan transit- Am I a joke to you?
You haven’t seen Croatian rail then ;)
BMW (Big Metal Willy)
San Francisco Bay Area resident checking in. I think we have some of the best public transit in the US, which is pretty shit compared to most urban areas in Europe and Asia. Our trains come frequently enough and are generally on-time but the coverage is pretty bad. Public transit in SF can be pretty unpleasant though.
Meanwhile in Greece:
