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Passenger trains in the United States vs Europe (infosec.pub)

submitted 6 days ago by ooli3@sopuli.xyz to c/map_enthusiasts@sopuli.xyz

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[–] sudo@lemmy.today 23 points 6 days ago (2 children)

It also doesn't acknowledge that a lot of that is just empty space. The US is ranked 180 of 242 nations in population density.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density

The US rail system has been bastardized since its inception, but this map is basically useless. The UK has 7x the population density as the US.

[–] nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 8 points 6 days ago

It also doesn't acknowledge that a lot of that is just empty space.

Yes, we have a lot of empty space, but we have very few N/S passenger trains out west.

For example, a train from Albuquerque to Denver is a 45 hour one way ride because you have to go to Chicago from Albuquerque, then back to Denver. This is a 6 hour drive. There is also nothing from El Paso to Albuquerque. However this does not show the train from Belen to Santa Fe that goes through Albuquerque.

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Ok... so why isnt the east coast covered in rails? The western states pulls the average way down.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The East coast is covered in rails. There's an Amtrak station within walking distance of my house. We have a high speed rail line in the Northeast Corridor and have for decades.

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Are we looking at the same image?

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Actually, I realize we're not looking at the same map. Those are the passenger routes. I'm thinking of railways. We've got more rail than that, we just don't run passenger trains on them.

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yes, theres a lot of rails. Though, even that has declined as more freight is being moved by trucks...

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago

You've got "precision scheduled railroading" calculating extremely long freight trains with the absolute minimum amount of engines needed to pull it, and thus the absolute minimum crew, constantly stalling on hills. Gave us that video of 4014 pushing a stalled train.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I live here. I know where the train tracks are. They're all over creation.

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Only what is vestigally left. This is what it used to look like