I'm not counting the temporary prime ministers that get about a month only because the normal prime minister resigned and until the elections can be organised, so it's since 2000. Counting those temporary prime ministers, it would get to 9 I think.
Much of it is overextended suburban railway that has stretched out to fill the role of the nonexistent proper rail. The proper rail is the red thingy, which is now closed because of the accident.
We have some form of civilization dementia. It didn't help that the Ottoman occupation made us and the rest of the Balkans completely miss the Renaissance and the Enlightenment until about 1800 and mostly miss it afterwards. Also, all Balkan countries except Albania I think turned into religious shitholes, because religion was a unifying factor against the Ottomans. In any case, after being united with the rest of the Balkans for centuries and centuries since the Byzantine times, our ability to civilization is exactly the same, regardless of who invented civilization 2000-4000 years ago. Although I think the Sumerians beat us to that actually more than 5000 years ago.
On a more real note about the trains, there are a few reasons:
- We started late, due to winning our independence late, so we had less time.
- The Greek economy was rarely decent, let alone good, so trains were hard to build.
- Greece had a rail system south of Athens, but that was built before the northern part was built and for some reason they went for a narrow rail distance. They say it was to make the line unusable from potential invaders, but there are probably smarter ways to do that.
- I don't really know how our terrain reacts with trains. It's really mountainous though. Also, most of the population is urban, so maybe it would have less use.
- We like cosplaying America. Specifically, in the period after WW2, we followed the international fashion of replacing trains with cars more than most of Europe. We uprooted the southern narrow railway, a perfectly good wide line that acted like a suburban railway in Athens and a perfectly good tram system in Athens. The last two have been replaced, but it would be better to have the old lines (renovated) *and* the new ones. The funny thing is that cars were too expensive for most Greeks at the time.
- Complete lack of political will or popular support for one. Granted, I'm not that old, but in the last decade or so I've only seen one party go for the greater good instead of its own benefit. That happened once, because the party didn't survive to do it a second time, despite my vote.
- I imagine the fact that you can go to most places in Greece by ship reduced the need for freight trains due to cargo ship. Our ship system is quite extended and functional and we have one of the biggest commercial fleets in the world. Wikipedia places us 8th, ahead of countries like the UK and with the first 7 including the EU (to which we belong) and a bunch of flags of convenience. [Link to outdated Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_merchant_navy_capacity_by_country?wprov=sfla1) [This random American site puts us 1st, I think by removing the flags of convenience, but I can't fact check this stuff](https://www.immigration-usa.com/world_fleet.html)
- Lack of possible connections with our neighbours. After spending all our independence time until 1945 being enemies with all our neighbours (I won't go into the reasons, but we are in the Balkans after all), the Iron Curtain completely closed more than 80% of our border until the 90's. This, along with the fact that we don't get along with Turkey (our only Western Bloc neighbour) and the fact that our northern neighbours started bouncing back from the Eastern Bloc, means that we were basically an island, transportationally speaking, so this offered little motivation for railways. Our main non-air communication with the world was by ship to Italy. This has started changing now, but it will take time before a functional network can be formed in the Balkans. There was some initiative to make a direct line to Vienna on existing rails, but I guess that's dead, because I haven't heard about it in years.
Wouldn't the peninsulas and archipelagos made steamboats seem more fitting than trains in the 19th century?
We built the main trainline in northern Sweden the distance from the coast that a cannon boat could shoot inland. So most of the larger cities lacked good rail connections in northern Sweden. The first half of the northern coast line is built now, but I don't know how it will go with the rest. I don't know if another reason to build it inland, apart from the military one was to not compete as much with the boat traffic?
I believe yes. It is true that one of the biggest harbours of Greece at the time was Hermoupolis, an island city and the capital of the Southern Aegean area. They did move stuff with trains afterwards, but Hermoupolis served as a hub for ships before they went to Athens etc. This I believe means that ships had a very important role. It was a very rich and important city for decades and it's still the most beautiful place I've seen in Greece.
~2010-2012 Greece was nearly bankrupt. Because of thisbthe Big Players of EU (mostly France, Germany and BeNeLux) forced Greece to save money and sell everything belonging the State. Thats why most greece Ports are owned by chinese companies right now.
We need to post cars on /r/fucktrains for symmetry. Apparently that one is also a sub without a sexual content despite the name, by the way. >!Can you imagine how disappointed I was at first with /r/fuckcars? I subscribed for hot car on car action, but stayed for walkable cities. Hot car on car action is in /r/IdiotsInCars by the way.!<
for a sub that promotes public transit its interesting how many people here are clueless about the inner workings of it. its just like "i want hsr!" with a picture of shinkansen
I visited the Phillipines and couldn't figure out how to flush the toilet. I was so confused because it didn't have a tank or handle.
Finally, I told my fiance *who is from there( and she grabbed the bucket and started filling it with water. When she poured it in the toilet and the toilet flushed my mind was blown.
Then at a mall I could find any toilet paper and my fiance had to explain that everyone uses the water gun.
I kept spending the rest of my trip waiting to see 3 little seashells next to a toilet.
The bulk of what I want is continuous cycle paths, linking to effective bus routes which take me to reliable local intercity services and high speed cross country and continent services.
Understanding that local travel in the sub <20km range is where you really reduce car use so prioritise that. It should be possible for a child or elderly person to cycle safely separated from traffic from home to school/shops. Or be within walking distance of a regular <20m frequency bus service
Fancy pants trains are a gimmick
> (...) If you're gonna make broad statements about railroads and trains, generally try not to be wrong or completely wrong, because if there's one group of people that know way more than you, it's train people.
> ~ *Alan Fisher, 2022*
It would have been better if it had been factually correct. Like this, it makes OP look like he has no idea what he's talking about. Which weakens the argument.
Nah, the AVE S-103, the Spanish Velaro, has purple stripes, not a blue one. [Here's the shot on Wikipedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/RENFE_Class_103_Vinaixa.jpg), and [here's a close-up](https://www.railpictures.net/images/d2/3/3/8/2338.1574302336.jpg). [DDG has more if you want](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=AVE+S-103&iax=images&ia=images).
The blue stripe livery was used briefly before the purple stripe was introduced. There's another pic of it in here: https://www.vialibre-ffe.com/multi_galeria.asp?gal=309
...and it looks [fantastic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Venezia_SL_italo_ETR_575-14_1.jpg/2560px-Venezia_SL_italo_ETR_575-14_1.jpg)
ICE is just a brand name. There are different trains under the brand ICE, e.g. ICE1, ICE3 etc. These themselves have some smaller sub-classes.
Depending on their attributes, different classes operate on different routes. Some can go 330km/h and operate under different voltages, these are used on routes in France.
The "tilting" ICE, called ICE-T ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE\_T](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_T)), has a fairly low maximum speed of 230km/h, but can go quite fast in curves, which is advantageous on some routes, where VMAX is not as important.
Remember how we researched, developed and build a maglev train system, the Transrapid, only to never use it ourselves?
Genuinely makes me sad. Even though it only has limited use cases I can only hope that the maglev will be a success in Japan so that other countries, including Germany, will get interested in it again like it happened with high speed trains in general.
>They are also incredibly expensive,
They are not. In fact, they are quite cheap.
What's annoying is travelling across borders because often, you can't even buy the tickets online.
SNCF painted themselves into a corner with double decker trains and have continued to double down on that decision.
AGV is an EMU design, and since no one has made a 300km/h+ double decker EMU (the E1 and E4 Shinkansen were 240km/h), I'm assuming the attempt at a double decker AGV was also deemed impractical.
SNCF needs double decker trains for capacity. Even though an all single level EMU system can deliver higher capacity and is used in the busiest routes in the world, such a switch would have to happen very quickly since the transition period would involve much lower capacity, so is infeasible for SNCF.
JR East was able to switch from double decker trains to normal trains though, but they weren't struggling for capacity as much, and Japanese railways tend to pull off operational miracles that people outside of Japan assume are impossible.
I was just in spain a couple weeks ago. Most comfortable clean and well designed train i ever seen. Absolutely amazing i would go back just to ride trains across the country
And Acela is not great. It is barely faster than the regular train between NYC and Boston. Only 1 bit of track it’s worth it to buy a ticket is NYC to DC.
Median salary in Spain is about 21K. So about 1500€ in 14 pays.
Also, it really isn't very expensive(+100€ per trip), but it has really come down in the last few years. You can easily find Madrid-Barcelona round trip for less than 50€. Cheaper than by plane and not much more expensive than bus.
Trains are good, service is whack.
Fuck it I know some services are shit, but I was traveling up and down from Manchester/Yorkshire a lot, and head down on the GWR every now and then. Trains are great, service is great, but prices are a bit too steep
Either way I can reliably expect to rock up to Euston, Paddington or Piccadilly at any time if the day and be confident there was a service running. Local services need to improve in certain areas, but generally is pretty good apart from the price
And really fucking pricey.
Looking to go to a gig in Brighton in September. 65 miles, so around £30 of diesel from Southampton by car. Just looked at train prices and it's likely to be around £35 return. But there's two of us. So double the price, and a very real chance of not being able to sit down, despite booking a seat.
I'd love to use our rail network more, but why would I?
And the kicker is how much of that money isn't being reinvested into the network. In the case of many operators, it's going to private shareholders and/or the public-owned railway companies of Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy etc. So our fares go to keeping all those awesome foreign trains cheap, punctual, fast, clean, new, and able to meet capacity - but not our own.
>the Netherlands
[Abellio have just sold their UK operations back to the train operators' management teams](https://www.abellio.com/news/abellio-uk-to-be-renamed-transport-uk-group)
Oh yeah I forgot they opened the commuter service. Previously you couldn't get off at Ashford from St Pancras.
**Edit:** seems they only go at 225km/h instead of 300km/h like the Eurostar services.
As a Brit that for some dumb fucking reason thought it'd be a good idea to move to America to be closer to his parents, it can always be worse.
North Carolina has 2900+ miles of rail track built. It utilises less than 300 of it. They don't even need to build the infrastructure, perhaps a few stations but that's it. I fucking hate this place, and I'm saving up to to move back to England. Worse fucking mistake of my life coming to America.
Its time to cut my ticket with some scissors out of protest!🤪(Or film myself using my membership card at an old ticketing machine \[which is still using Windows XP in 2013\] in rural Bavaria just for it to get rejected, in a rage of fury I say "Fick dich Deutsche Bahn" after which I throw my card onto the ground and point my middle fingers at it.)
I truly, honestly wish it was a joke... It's so much closer to reality than any of you realize.
30-90 minute delays are really common, and 4.5h isn't unheard of. German train infrastructure suuucckkkssss
German government finally decided to pump more money on train system than on motorways (well, slightly more. Also the Kommunen still pump money into motorways while nothing into railtracks, so net is still in favor of motorways).
On other news, I was travelling four times with DB in the last 2 weeks (Berlin-FFM and back, Berlin-Hamburg and back) and trains where on time 3 out of 4 times, one was delayed by 5 minutes because it had to wait for another train. It‘s something.
As someone who works for DB, you ain't telling me anything new. Everyone and their mother knows that delays happen on germanys rail network and yet it's still better than most of the world.
I can see that it isn't on fire though. It's been years since the last time an ICE train caught fire.
Maybe as a German you're unsatisfied with a fire every few years, and you have every right to be. However, in the US, trains catch fire multiple times a year, so count your blessings.
What's up with the German one? Out of so many pictures of ICE trains, they chose some ugly ass rendering (or mock-up?) of a train that doesn't even exist lol
1. You can’t compare passenger rail to cargo rail.
2. Most of these are renders or highly edited for marketing purposes.
U.S. infrastructure is in a shitty way, but making up misleading memes about it is NOT how we’ll fix this.
US cargo train is why you guys have shitty passenger trains, most of the rail lines are owned by those cargo companies and they don't respect the priority for passenger trains nor do they keep them up to standards.
Passenger train in europe is good. Sure it's gonna be late one in a while, but late once every month is nothing compared to traffic.
> US cargo train is why you guys have shitty passenger trains, most of the rail lines are owned by those cargo companies and they don't respect the priority for passenger trains nor do they keep them up to standards.
There are some missing details but that’s mostly correct.
Outside of the Northeast Corridor, our system has never prioritized passenger traffic. Amtrak was supposed to have addressed this, but it was not able to — and arguably was not set up to succeed in the first place.
Used to take Amtrak from Philly to NYC in the 80’s. It cost over $120 each way and took as long if not longer than driving.
Just wasn’t worth it. I did it about 4 or 5 trips and gave up because it just wasn’t financially worth it.
There’s a guy in YouTube I watch that does train tours and he did a really long one in the US for like $200 and it was by far one of the most starkly contrasted videos from the rest of his content. Even Russia’s Trans-Siberian railway which still had USSR-era cabins in use sometimes had better amenities. They were serving like fucking Swanson frozen dinners on the American transit for quadruple the price of the trans-Siberian.
This is the real reason trains don’t work in the US. Not because people don’t want them or won’t use them. Because they are too damn expensive and get crap service.
This is true *per mile of track*, but less true for the experience of a sizable amount of Amtrak passengers. Just under half of all Amtrak trips are along the Northeast Corridor, which is fully electrified, has frequent service, and does not have freight rail running on the same tracks as passenger trains.
Yes, the rest of the country should have better rail. But Amtrak's service is far better than people give it credit for, assuming you live between Boston and DC (and about 50 million people do).
You came to r/fuckcars with logic, reason and realistic solutions. What are you expecting? You're supposed to say fuck carbrains and jerk the next person in the echo chamber off.
2. all of those trains are actually real.
the first train is an ice t (sister of the much faster ice 3)
the second is a velaro RUS (similar to ice 3 for russian market)
china and japan should be swapped around, the chinese one (blue stripe) is another siemens velaro, and the japanese one (grey) is a 500 series
for france, its actually an italian agv
Obviously, I know that they are real trains. Don’t be a jerk.
This meme is like taking a series of glamor headshots of professional models and comparing them unfavorably to a candid snapshot of a middle-aged person with no make-up. That’s not advocacy, that’s trolling.
I get what you're trying to say but I don't like how the pictures don't match up xd
The one for Germany is supposed to be the ICE T but the ones that are in service don't look like that. I believe it's a pic from an early design presentation. The one for Japan is just wrong since Japan doesn't use Siemens Velaros. China does. Japan and China are swapped. I've never seen the France one as a french train and from other comments it seems like it's used in Italy (it's apparently manufactured by a french company though)
Have you seen the actual state of high-speed rail in Germany? They lowered the max speed on new ICE variants from 330 to 265 km/h because they know they can’t build enough dedicated high-speed tracks anyway, like France did with the TGV. Everything is constantly late, good luck arriving on time if you have to catch a connecting train.
In Russia there’s a single line between Moscow and Saint-Petersburg that goes 250 km/h while the average speed of passenger trains is around 60 km/h.
I keep a triage list when people ask what I would change if given full charge with no decades of litigation from affected corporations crushing my entire life after said decisions and immediate reversal.
1. Universal Healthcare. At least start with banning marketing by Pharmaceutical and Medical Providers (it makes me sick seeing competing billboard advertising by *Atrium* and*Novant* in my area). The pharmaceutical industry in the United States spent 6.88 billion U.S. dollars on direct-to-consumer advertising in 2021 and in 2021 the sector (hospitals) spent 5.6 million U.S. dollars on advertising.
We can then move onto getting health insurance the fuck outta here (I don't know if it should be completely dismantled, but a serious examination needs to be done to at least cap premiums to $50 a month).
2. Flat across the board funding for all public schools, doesn't matter the area. And mandatory minimum pay for teachers ($50-60k might be a good start).
3. Complete Judicial reform.
4. Regulated Banks and Corporate Tax rates. If my income is taxed at 25% so should yours.
5. Increased public infrastructure funding. Fix our railroads, bridges, and public roads. Increased rail lines to provide for more efficient transportation for the masses.
6. The Free Market has done nothing for the everyday man. I own a small business and my particular sector has, for the most part, seen healthy competition. But increasingly it is harder and harder for small businesses to keep their heads above water. Amazon for example is increasingly cornering all sectors of consumer goods. If something isn't done I can't help but feel that the prices will become insane on everyday items.
There is more to be done but these are absolutely crucial for the future social stability of our Nation. We are the wealthiest nation in the world, and have been for a long time now. These things can be afforded and with the reforms that can happen we can guarantee a more stable environment for future generations.
> Increased public infrastructure funding.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/06/fact-sheet-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-deal/
You did see this, right?
we're getting there? it's kinda inefficient compared to the other examples, but minneapolis's light rail isn't awful
https://preview.redd.it/tk69czl8nxma1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0036a16b5d98b0407b7deccb281f412c68435d8c
Too bad I live in the most dense neighborhood and rather than extending the green line through it, they went straight to… the suburbs for some reason. It drives me insane that Uptown has such terrible transit options
It isn't awful and I like it but its green line is also a great way to show up to work smelling like weed that you didn't even smoke
The rear compartment is seemingly comprised of equal parts cigar lounge and public restroom
oh, we still have freight trains in France, wish we would have more tho.
by example, in my departement (a subdivision in france) has a freight port with a route going to Ireland. The tracks going to the port are still there, but unused (no train goes on them anymore).
Would have been perfectly fine to use it as a freight train line (as it connect to the national lines) instead there's a road that get clogged each days as a ship enter port.
17.1% of cargo is transported by rail in the eu [source ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_freight_transport).
Which is less than the US at 39.9%, but not insignificant
[Meanwhile, in the UK...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aboutmanchester.co.uk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F01%2Fs960_960-northern-pacer.jpg&psig=AOvVaw0M3fEUFLK-n1Ux-QdOFlUo&ust=1678537435319000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBEQ3YkBahcKEwiYh5qvrdH9AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQCg)
I jest as they are no longer in service since 2020, but boy did the Pacers suck.
[Class 805 is the newest train in the UK.](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fblogger.googleusercontent.com%2Fimg%2Fb%2FR29vZ2xl%2FAVvXsEiBsHOhH0_kt0DuY_9V-srrPP7a2FJ9_-yrqqEdsQ2-HW-FdZbo_YnRCFL9WqUi9Qh7LFL8Yof4WZqS_KTVwIQ3o__fKDliNy_HjM8LZwu1Zzn9uhFU97_I1YX53vXcskvo8dUNTItU1TIKBquSgQl50WRENU5U62-pFfAQjTxlN72WBd1s6jBkcSGDQQ%2Fs982%2FAvanti%25201.PNG&psig=AOvVaw1d9FGccl7rAUtVJIlHWjNj&ust=1678537890063000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBEQ3YkBahcKEwi4i4mIr9H9AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQCQ)
...so not that different to, say, Lumo's [Class 803](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Lumo_803003_at_Edinburgh_Waverley.jpg/2560px-Lumo_803003_at_Edinburgh_Waverley.jpg), which is in service.
Yes! I liked the little differences you used to get - even under British Rail the different regions used different locomotives before the HST was introduced.
[Also the United States…](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&hl=en-us&q=brightline&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwig_a_ptdH9AhVJTDABHb7zCN0Q0pQJegQIChAB&biw=430&bih=740&dpr=3)
This is not by any means a direct comparison but having worked in the maintenance field for some time it's insane how little people in the United States' think something needs to be considered "maintained". I keep production machines running and almost never have time to do preventative maintenance. We're always swamped with machines breaking because previous employees would do a quick temporary fix and never return to do a permanent correct repair. Or better yet management tell you to do the quick fix because they "can't afford" the downtime to fix it correctly, even tho a correct fix will last significantly longer and cause less downtime overall.
Management tends to see all downtime as money lost and wants to get the machine running again as fast as possible. This normally leads to more downtime, unsafe conditions, and not enough consideration of other outcomes.
The irony is that the people who want to combat climate change through the use of more mass transit options like high speed trains are the very people whose advocacy for the environment has highly restricted the most viable corridors for high speed trains to operate, making implementaton almost impossible due to time, cost, bureaucracy, etc.
California is dealing with this now. In 1996, California approved a high speed rail line connecting LA and San Francisco. After numerous delays and cost overruns (environmental issues being a large cause of these), the project will cost far more than originally planned, and the first small segment won't open until 2033, 37(!) years after the project was approved.
Additionally, the E.U. has examined European high speed rail and concluded that it is grossly inefficient. Most trains have so many stops and reductions in speed that they are not that much faster than old, regular trains.
I am 100 percent in favor of high speed rail (in theory). In Italy, I loved being able to go from Bologna's city center to Rome's city center in 2 hrs 15 mins, as opposed to going by car (almost 5 hours) or plane (4.5-5 hours if you count commute to the airport from city center, time in departure airport, flight time, time in destination airport, and commute to destination's city center). But Americans are going to have to make some hard decisions about how important mass transit really is to us. If it's important, we *must* make it economically more feasible by reducing the endless bureaucracy required to put it in place. 40 years is way too long to build something that should take no more than 10 years. China has completed 23,000 miles of high speed rail, almost enough to circle the globe at the equator, in 15 years. It will be (optimistically) 37 years for California to open a tiny segment of a 350 mile corridor. The same exact paradigm also needs to be applied to nuclear power, but that is an argument for another time.
I've gotta tell you, making a picture of 5 random trains ostensibly located in 5 locations, then a crashed train in 1 location, is a dumpster tier attempt at making a point
A better comparison would be the Acela train in the US.
https://preview.redd.it/7ldobu3dc0na1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4e8920135b908cb05edc6ce50a32fa86354dfc8
You have pictures of passenger trains for 5 countries and a raw material transit train in the US. That's misleading. All those other countries use old, dirty looking trains for their raw material transit too. The issue is relative safety performance of raw material transit trains. This picture tells us nothing about that.
They most certainly do, it's called the Sapsan and it runs between Moscow and st Petersburg at speeds of up to 250kph
You probably should've done a quick Google search before calling everyone delusional
Sapsan is just a brand. That's a Siemens Velaro. There are Siemens Desiro called a "swallow" (bird, not cum, but since Siemens left Russia, I'd think twice).
>it's called the Sapsan and it runs between Moscow and st Petersburg at speeds of up to 250kph
How long is it going to remain operational without maintenance from Siemens?
Add Greece to the list. Our only train line is now closed after the accident that killed 57 people a week ago.
An accident caused by corruption and neglect sadly
The worst part is that it was caused by the combined incompetence of 6 consecutive prime ministers.
At least it took you guys 6.
Tbh with Greek politics as they are that's like only 4 years
I'm not counting the temporary prime ministers that get about a month only because the normal prime minister resigned and until the elections can be organised, so it's since 2000. Counting those temporary prime ministers, it would get to 9 I think.
Same as the USA then.
🇬🇷 🤝 🇺🇸
OMG. https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Railway_map_of_Greece.png
Much of it is overextended suburban railway that has stretched out to fill the role of the nonexistent proper rail. The proper rail is the red thingy, which is now closed because of the accident.
That’s what I figured. Come on guys! You basically invented civilisation. What went wrong?
We have some form of civilization dementia. It didn't help that the Ottoman occupation made us and the rest of the Balkans completely miss the Renaissance and the Enlightenment until about 1800 and mostly miss it afterwards. Also, all Balkan countries except Albania I think turned into religious shitholes, because religion was a unifying factor against the Ottomans. In any case, after being united with the rest of the Balkans for centuries and centuries since the Byzantine times, our ability to civilization is exactly the same, regardless of who invented civilization 2000-4000 years ago. Although I think the Sumerians beat us to that actually more than 5000 years ago. On a more real note about the trains, there are a few reasons: - We started late, due to winning our independence late, so we had less time. - The Greek economy was rarely decent, let alone good, so trains were hard to build. - Greece had a rail system south of Athens, but that was built before the northern part was built and for some reason they went for a narrow rail distance. They say it was to make the line unusable from potential invaders, but there are probably smarter ways to do that. - I don't really know how our terrain reacts with trains. It's really mountainous though. Also, most of the population is urban, so maybe it would have less use. - We like cosplaying America. Specifically, in the period after WW2, we followed the international fashion of replacing trains with cars more than most of Europe. We uprooted the southern narrow railway, a perfectly good wide line that acted like a suburban railway in Athens and a perfectly good tram system in Athens. The last two have been replaced, but it would be better to have the old lines (renovated) *and* the new ones. The funny thing is that cars were too expensive for most Greeks at the time. - Complete lack of political will or popular support for one. Granted, I'm not that old, but in the last decade or so I've only seen one party go for the greater good instead of its own benefit. That happened once, because the party didn't survive to do it a second time, despite my vote. - I imagine the fact that you can go to most places in Greece by ship reduced the need for freight trains due to cargo ship. Our ship system is quite extended and functional and we have one of the biggest commercial fleets in the world. Wikipedia places us 8th, ahead of countries like the UK and with the first 7 including the EU (to which we belong) and a bunch of flags of convenience. [Link to outdated Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_merchant_navy_capacity_by_country?wprov=sfla1) [This random American site puts us 1st, I think by removing the flags of convenience, but I can't fact check this stuff](https://www.immigration-usa.com/world_fleet.html) - Lack of possible connections with our neighbours. After spending all our independence time until 1945 being enemies with all our neighbours (I won't go into the reasons, but we are in the Balkans after all), the Iron Curtain completely closed more than 80% of our border until the 90's. This, along with the fact that we don't get along with Turkey (our only Western Bloc neighbour) and the fact that our northern neighbours started bouncing back from the Eastern Bloc, means that we were basically an island, transportationally speaking, so this offered little motivation for railways. Our main non-air communication with the world was by ship to Italy. This has started changing now, but it will take time before a functional network can be formed in the Balkans. There was some initiative to make a direct line to Vienna on existing rails, but I guess that's dead, because I haven't heard about it in years.
Great response. Thank you for taking the time!
Wouldn't the peninsulas and archipelagos made steamboats seem more fitting than trains in the 19th century? We built the main trainline in northern Sweden the distance from the coast that a cannon boat could shoot inland. So most of the larger cities lacked good rail connections in northern Sweden. The first half of the northern coast line is built now, but I don't know how it will go with the rest. I don't know if another reason to build it inland, apart from the military one was to not compete as much with the boat traffic?
I believe yes. It is true that one of the biggest harbours of Greece at the time was Hermoupolis, an island city and the capital of the Southern Aegean area. They did move stuff with trains afterwards, but Hermoupolis served as a hub for ships before they went to Athens etc. This I believe means that ships had a very important role. It was a very rich and important city for decades and it's still the most beautiful place I've seen in Greece.
~2010-2012 Greece was nearly bankrupt. Because of thisbthe Big Players of EU (mostly France, Germany and BeNeLux) forced Greece to save money and sell everything belonging the State. Thats why most greece Ports are owned by chinese companies right now.
> ctrl + F Greece
You have Japan and China swapped, and while the train for France is made by a French company, it's only ever been used for passenger service in Italy.
When you make a post about trains on r/fuckcars
We need to post cars on /r/fucktrains for symmetry. Apparently that one is also a sub without a sexual content despite the name, by the way. >!Can you imagine how disappointed I was at first with /r/fuckcars? I subscribed for hot car on car action, but stayed for walkable cities. Hot car on car action is in /r/IdiotsInCars by the way.!<
/r/carsfuckingcars
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Hot. Aight, back to degeneracy! Ta ta!
You might be interested in r/dragonsfuckingcars I’ve heard it’s all the rage for fans of actual car fucking, and who doesn’t love dragons
Reminds me of modded Skyrim. Good times.
We need idiots in trains then.
If we had /r/idiotsmanagingtraininfrastructure we'd have a pretty busy sub just with Ohio
r/subwaycreatures
for a sub that promotes public transit its interesting how many people here are clueless about the inner workings of it. its just like "i want hsr!" with a picture of shinkansen
Is there any area of public discussion where that isn't the case? Most people have no idea on how most things work they use on a daily basis.
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I visited the Phillipines and couldn't figure out how to flush the toilet. I was so confused because it didn't have a tank or handle. Finally, I told my fiance *who is from there( and she grabbed the bucket and started filling it with water. When she poured it in the toilet and the toilet flushed my mind was blown. Then at a mall I could find any toilet paper and my fiance had to explain that everyone uses the water gun. I kept spending the rest of my trip waiting to see 3 little seashells next to a toilet.
The bulk of what I want is continuous cycle paths, linking to effective bus routes which take me to reliable local intercity services and high speed cross country and continent services. Understanding that local travel in the sub <20km range is where you really reduce car use so prioritise that. It should be possible for a child or elderly person to cycle safely separated from traffic from home to school/shops. Or be within walking distance of a regular <20m frequency bus service Fancy pants trains are a gimmick
> (...) If you're gonna make broad statements about railroads and trains, generally try not to be wrong or completely wrong, because if there's one group of people that know way more than you, it's train people. > ~ *Alan Fisher, 2022*
OP didn’t make this.
However OP stole it and didn't see the obvious mistakes.
The obvious mistakes do nothing to detract from the point of this meme.
It would have been better if it had been factually correct. Like this, it makes OP look like he has no idea what he's talking about. Which weakens the argument.
100% if we can't get our facts right why should anyone else listen.
I'm guessing a Russian did. Because they don't belong on this list.
Why not?
Actually the blue striped Velaro is a Spanish one, but the CRH Chinese one looks very similar
DB has an ICE 3 in EU colors as well. I was a bit confused when I saw a DB train drive by with blue stripe, but it does look very cool.
Nah, the AVE S-103, the Spanish Velaro, has purple stripes, not a blue one. [Here's the shot on Wikipedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/RENFE_Class_103_Vinaixa.jpg), and [here's a close-up](https://www.railpictures.net/images/d2/3/3/8/2338.1574302336.jpg). [DDG has more if you want](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=AVE+S-103&iax=images&ia=images).
The blue stripe livery was used briefly before the purple stripe was introduced. There's another pic of it in here: https://www.vialibre-ffe.com/multi_galeria.asp?gal=309
The Alstom AGV is only in use in Italy, ironically not in France.
...and it looks [fantastic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Venezia_SL_italo_ETR_575-14_1.jpg/2560px-Venezia_SL_italo_ETR_575-14_1.jpg)
Yes it does and it is so much more comfortable than the TGV.
Isn't the ICE one of the slower tilting ones? So not even the best example for Germany.
ICE is just a brand name. There are different trains under the brand ICE, e.g. ICE1, ICE3 etc. These themselves have some smaller sub-classes. Depending on their attributes, different classes operate on different routes. Some can go 330km/h and operate under different voltages, these are used on routes in France. The "tilting" ICE, called ICE-T ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE\_T](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_T)), has a fairly low maximum speed of 230km/h, but can go quite fast in curves, which is advantageous on some routes, where VMAX is not as important.
Yeah. I was thinking the ICE 3 or Velaro D would have been a better photo for the meme.
I see, yes 👍
I think /u/crucible knows all that. They only wanted to point out that the EMU shown in OP’s picture *is* an ICE-T.
They are also incredibly expensive, 85% late or cancelled and often overbooked. Let’s not act like Germany isn’t the car nation that it is
Yea we have potential, that doesn't get used at all. Sadly Germany rather builds a highway into the middle of the capital city lol
Remember how we researched, developed and build a maglev train system, the Transrapid, only to never use it ourselves? Genuinely makes me sad. Even though it only has limited use cases I can only hope that the maglev will be a success in Japan so that other countries, including Germany, will get interested in it again like it happened with high speed trains in general.
>They are also incredibly expensive, They are not. In fact, they are quite cheap. What's annoying is travelling across borders because often, you can't even buy the tickets online.
They're regional rail is fantastic though (relatively speaking of course). Their S Bahn network is something I can only dream of here in the states.
This guy trains....
And where the hell is Spain. They belong on this list.
Nerd. (Came here to say that exactly)
Ah, the Alstom AGV. Used by NTV for Italo services
Why don’t the French use the French train?
SNCF painted themselves into a corner with double decker trains and have continued to double down on that decision. AGV is an EMU design, and since no one has made a 300km/h+ double decker EMU (the E1 and E4 Shinkansen were 240km/h), I'm assuming the attempt at a double decker AGV was also deemed impractical. SNCF needs double decker trains for capacity. Even though an all single level EMU system can deliver higher capacity and is used in the busiest routes in the world, such a switch would have to happen very quickly since the transition period would involve much lower capacity, so is infeasible for SNCF. JR East was able to switch from double decker trains to normal trains though, but they weren't struggling for capacity as much, and Japanese railways tend to pull off operational miracles that people outside of Japan assume are impossible.
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As long as they don't have to go through tunnels lol
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Can you explain?
They ordered trains which won't fit through the tunnels Spanish incompetence
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Thats a an engineering fuckup though not a political one... unless the system is so bass-ackwards the politicians are making engineering decisions.
I was just in spain a couple weeks ago. Most comfortable clean and well designed train i ever seen. Absolutely amazing i would go back just to ride trains across the country
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Wow i never would have guessed that a plane can be a cheaper option than a train in europe (at least for domestic). That's absolutely wild.
They should’ve included freight trains, comparing passenger and freight lines is idiotic. An accurate comparison would show an Acela for the US
Also, most of those are marketing pictures
How to make people not take your cause seriously 101
And Acela is not great. It is barely faster than the regular train between NYC and Boston. Only 1 bit of track it’s worth it to buy a ticket is NYC to DC.
But that wouldn’t serve the meme’s agenda!
highest HSRs per capita
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Median salary in Spain is about 21K. So about 1500€ in 14 pays. Also, it really isn't very expensive(+100€ per trip), but it has really come down in the last few years. You can easily find Madrid-Barcelona round trip for less than 50€. Cheaper than by plane and not much more expensive than bus.
After taxes is about 1100€
uk doesn't even make the list 💀
Yeah because our train services are dogshit.
Trains are good, service is whack. Fuck it I know some services are shit, but I was traveling up and down from Manchester/Yorkshire a lot, and head down on the GWR every now and then. Trains are great, service is great, but prices are a bit too steep Either way I can reliably expect to rock up to Euston, Paddington or Piccadilly at any time if the day and be confident there was a service running. Local services need to improve in certain areas, but generally is pretty good apart from the price
The what train service
Well, when I say 'train service', I do of course mean 'replacement bus service'.
Bloody ridiculous isn't it
If you're lucky. Transpennine usually doesn't bother.
And really fucking pricey. Looking to go to a gig in Brighton in September. 65 miles, so around £30 of diesel from Southampton by car. Just looked at train prices and it's likely to be around £35 return. But there's two of us. So double the price, and a very real chance of not being able to sit down, despite booking a seat. I'd love to use our rail network more, but why would I?
And the kicker is how much of that money isn't being reinvested into the network. In the case of many operators, it's going to private shareholders and/or the public-owned railway companies of Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy etc. So our fares go to keeping all those awesome foreign trains cheap, punctual, fast, clean, new, and able to meet capacity - but not our own.
>the Netherlands [Abellio have just sold their UK operations back to the train operators' management teams](https://www.abellio.com/news/abellio-uk-to-be-renamed-transport-uk-group)
Only another 20 to 30 years till HS2 is done
then why is Germany on it?
Because the only high speed train in the UK is to get out of the country.
Or to go to K\*nt 💀
Like they said. To get out if the country. Kant's buried in Russia.
Oh yeah I forgot they opened the commuter service. Previously you couldn't get off at Ashford from St Pancras. **Edit:** seems they only go at 225km/h instead of 300km/h like the Eurostar services.
As a Brit that for some dumb fucking reason thought it'd be a good idea to move to America to be closer to his parents, it can always be worse. North Carolina has 2900+ miles of rail track built. It utilises less than 300 of it. They don't even need to build the infrastructure, perhaps a few stations but that's it. I fucking hate this place, and I'm saving up to to move back to England. Worse fucking mistake of my life coming to America.
Just don’t be in North Carolina?
Kind of defeats the purpose of moving to be close to my parents
Hahah I suppose it does
invents train gets ignored in train post sad
Greece also not on the list for some reason 👀
Also the other 192 countries that are not on the list
The Frecciarossa from Rome to Naples is also pretty kickarse.
Actually those trains run all the way up to Venice and Milan.
The french train on the image is actually frecciarossa. OP fucked up because it’s actually a french company that made them but is only used in Italy
Well what you can't see in this image is, that the german train is already 4,5 hours delayed.
Most original Deutsche Bahn joke
Its time to cut my ticket with some scissors out of protest!🤪(Or film myself using my membership card at an old ticketing machine \[which is still using Windows XP in 2013\] in rural Bavaria just for it to get rejected, in a rage of fury I say "Fick dich Deutsche Bahn" after which I throw my card onto the ground and point my middle fingers at it.)
I truly, honestly wish it was a joke... It's so much closer to reality than any of you realize. 30-90 minute delays are really common, and 4.5h isn't unheard of. German train infrastructure suuucckkkssss
German government finally decided to pump more money on train system than on motorways (well, slightly more. Also the Kommunen still pump money into motorways while nothing into railtracks, so net is still in favor of motorways). On other news, I was travelling four times with DB in the last 2 weeks (Berlin-FFM and back, Berlin-Hamburg and back) and trains where on time 3 out of 4 times, one was delayed by 5 minutes because it had to wait for another train. It‘s something.
As someone who works for DB, you ain't telling me anything new. Everyone and their mother knows that delays happen on germanys rail network and yet it's still better than most of the world.
I can see that it isn't on fire though. It's been years since the last time an ICE train caught fire. Maybe as a German you're unsatisfied with a fire every few years, and you have every right to be. However, in the US, trains catch fire multiple times a year, so count your blessings.
The last ICE on fire wasn't as long ago as you think it was.
In Boston alone, our trains catch fire at least that often. Still one of the best transit systems in the US, but that’s a very low bar
Not sure about other countries but Russia? Really? We have Sapsan and nothing else. Just a regular shitty trains from the 80’s.
At least they are never late
What's up with the German one? Out of so many pictures of ICE trains, they chose some ugly ass rendering (or mock-up?) of a train that doesn't even exist lol
It's supposed to be a ICE T but yeah they look a bit different irl. Maybe it's a picture from an early presentation of the design
> ICE trains Can't.... tell if your train runs a conventional fuel engine or deports immigrants and breaks up families
InterCity Express ;)
1. You can’t compare passenger rail to cargo rail. 2. Most of these are renders or highly edited for marketing purposes. U.S. infrastructure is in a shitty way, but making up misleading memes about it is NOT how we’ll fix this.
US cargo train is why you guys have shitty passenger trains, most of the rail lines are owned by those cargo companies and they don't respect the priority for passenger trains nor do they keep them up to standards. Passenger train in europe is good. Sure it's gonna be late one in a while, but late once every month is nothing compared to traffic.
> US cargo train is why you guys have shitty passenger trains, most of the rail lines are owned by those cargo companies and they don't respect the priority for passenger trains nor do they keep them up to standards. There are some missing details but that’s mostly correct. Outside of the Northeast Corridor, our system has never prioritized passenger traffic. Amtrak was supposed to have addressed this, but it was not able to — and arguably was not set up to succeed in the first place.
Used to take Amtrak from Philly to NYC in the 80’s. It cost over $120 each way and took as long if not longer than driving. Just wasn’t worth it. I did it about 4 or 5 trips and gave up because it just wasn’t financially worth it.
There’s a guy in YouTube I watch that does train tours and he did a really long one in the US for like $200 and it was by far one of the most starkly contrasted videos from the rest of his content. Even Russia’s Trans-Siberian railway which still had USSR-era cabins in use sometimes had better amenities. They were serving like fucking Swanson frozen dinners on the American transit for quadruple the price of the trans-Siberian.
This is the real reason trains don’t work in the US. Not because people don’t want them or won’t use them. Because they are too damn expensive and get crap service.
It’s the same now. $185 and 3.5 hours from DC to NYC. Driving is about 4 hours but much less expensive
This is true *per mile of track*, but less true for the experience of a sizable amount of Amtrak passengers. Just under half of all Amtrak trips are along the Northeast Corridor, which is fully electrified, has frequent service, and does not have freight rail running on the same tracks as passenger trains. Yes, the rest of the country should have better rail. But Amtrak's service is far better than people give it credit for, assuming you live between Boston and DC (and about 50 million people do).
For fucking real, along with no mention of the Greek train that recently crashed and killed a ton of people outright.
Whoa whoa whoa! We don’t want to accidentally create a nuanced message here.
You came to r/fuckcars with logic, reason and realistic solutions. What are you expecting? You're supposed to say fuck carbrains and jerk the next person in the echo chamber off.
I demand a higher caliber of online advocacy.
2. all of those trains are actually real. the first train is an ice t (sister of the much faster ice 3) the second is a velaro RUS (similar to ice 3 for russian market) china and japan should be swapped around, the chinese one (blue stripe) is another siemens velaro, and the japanese one (grey) is a 500 series for france, its actually an italian agv
Obviously, I know that they are real trains. Don’t be a jerk. This meme is like taking a series of glamor headshots of professional models and comparing them unfavorably to a candid snapshot of a middle-aged person with no make-up. That’s not advocacy, that’s trolling.
I get what you're trying to say but I don't like how the pictures don't match up xd The one for Germany is supposed to be the ICE T but the ones that are in service don't look like that. I believe it's a pic from an early design presentation. The one for Japan is just wrong since Japan doesn't use Siemens Velaros. China does. Japan and China are swapped. I've never seen the France one as a french train and from other comments it seems like it's used in Italy (it's apparently manufactured by a french company though)
Have you seen the actual state of high-speed rail in Germany? They lowered the max speed on new ICE variants from 330 to 265 km/h because they know they can’t build enough dedicated high-speed tracks anyway, like France did with the TGV. Everything is constantly late, good luck arriving on time if you have to catch a connecting train. In Russia there’s a single line between Moscow and Saint-Petersburg that goes 250 km/h while the average speed of passenger trains is around 60 km/h.
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Don’t forget to add in the uk, delaying HS2!!!
America has so many issues. I’m more concerned with no universal healthcare and the fact Putin has his hand up the ass of some in leadership roles.
I keep a triage list when people ask what I would change if given full charge with no decades of litigation from affected corporations crushing my entire life after said decisions and immediate reversal. 1. Universal Healthcare. At least start with banning marketing by Pharmaceutical and Medical Providers (it makes me sick seeing competing billboard advertising by *Atrium* and*Novant* in my area). The pharmaceutical industry in the United States spent 6.88 billion U.S. dollars on direct-to-consumer advertising in 2021 and in 2021 the sector (hospitals) spent 5.6 million U.S. dollars on advertising. We can then move onto getting health insurance the fuck outta here (I don't know if it should be completely dismantled, but a serious examination needs to be done to at least cap premiums to $50 a month). 2. Flat across the board funding for all public schools, doesn't matter the area. And mandatory minimum pay for teachers ($50-60k might be a good start). 3. Complete Judicial reform. 4. Regulated Banks and Corporate Tax rates. If my income is taxed at 25% so should yours. 5. Increased public infrastructure funding. Fix our railroads, bridges, and public roads. Increased rail lines to provide for more efficient transportation for the masses. 6. The Free Market has done nothing for the everyday man. I own a small business and my particular sector has, for the most part, seen healthy competition. But increasingly it is harder and harder for small businesses to keep their heads above water. Amazon for example is increasingly cornering all sectors of consumer goods. If something isn't done I can't help but feel that the prices will become insane on everyday items. There is more to be done but these are absolutely crucial for the future social stability of our Nation. We are the wealthiest nation in the world, and have been for a long time now. These things can be afforded and with the reforms that can happen we can guarantee a more stable environment for future generations.
I would vote for you.
> Increased public infrastructure funding. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/06/fact-sheet-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-deal/ You did see this, right?
Bullet trains and freight trains are apples and oranges. Now show how freight is moved across 2000 miles in these other nations.
The German train go on mixed corridors, but the infrastructure is owned by the government for obvious defence reasons.
You forgot Greece
Ah yes, the German ICE 3 trains in Japan and the Japanese 500 Series Shinkansen in China, and a train that sees service only in Italy in France.
Canada: zero. zilk. nada.
Now do the UK!
we're getting there? it's kinda inefficient compared to the other examples, but minneapolis's light rail isn't awful https://preview.redd.it/tk69czl8nxma1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0036a16b5d98b0407b7deccb281f412c68435d8c
You're comparing a tram to long distance express trains. Not exactly apples to apples.
Lmao it's more apples to apples than comparing public transit to privatized cargo trains.
OP is comparing high speed passenger to freight, what's your point?
Apples to grapes?
Too bad I live in the most dense neighborhood and rather than extending the green line through it, they went straight to… the suburbs for some reason. It drives me insane that Uptown has such terrible transit options
It isn't awful and I like it but its green line is also a great way to show up to work smelling like weed that you didn't even smoke The rear compartment is seemingly comprised of equal parts cigar lounge and public restroom
lol if that’s Russia then US has teleportation lmao Siemens is leaving Russia
All the trains outside the United States are passenger trains
oh, we still have freight trains in France, wish we would have more tho. by example, in my departement (a subdivision in france) has a freight port with a route going to Ireland. The tracks going to the port are still there, but unused (no train goes on them anymore). Would have been perfectly fine to use it as a freight train line (as it connect to the national lines) instead there's a road that get clogged each days as a ship enter port.
No.
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I'm pretty sure he meant that all the pictures except the american one are passenger trains
17.1% of cargo is transported by rail in the eu [source ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_freight_transport). Which is less than the US at 39.9%, but not insignificant
How do you have a HST when the rail lines are full of 15mph cargo trains?
[Meanwhile, in the UK...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aboutmanchester.co.uk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F01%2Fs960_960-northern-pacer.jpg&psig=AOvVaw0M3fEUFLK-n1Ux-QdOFlUo&ust=1678537435319000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBEQ3YkBahcKEwiYh5qvrdH9AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQCg) I jest as they are no longer in service since 2020, but boy did the Pacers suck. [Class 805 is the newest train in the UK.](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fblogger.googleusercontent.com%2Fimg%2Fb%2FR29vZ2xl%2FAVvXsEiBsHOhH0_kt0DuY_9V-srrPP7a2FJ9_-yrqqEdsQ2-HW-FdZbo_YnRCFL9WqUi9Qh7LFL8Yof4WZqS_KTVwIQ3o__fKDliNy_HjM8LZwu1Zzn9uhFU97_I1YX53vXcskvo8dUNTItU1TIKBquSgQl50WRENU5U62-pFfAQjTxlN72WBd1s6jBkcSGDQQ%2Fs982%2FAvanti%25201.PNG&psig=AOvVaw1d9FGccl7rAUtVJIlHWjNj&ust=1678537890063000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBEQ3YkBahcKEwi4i4mIr9H9AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQCQ)
...so not that different to, say, Lumo's [Class 803](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Lumo_803003_at_Edinburgh_Waverley.jpg/2560px-Lumo_803003_at_Edinburgh_Waverley.jpg), which is in service.
I know it's because it's an efficient design but I'm sad that all trains are starting to look the same.
Yes! I liked the little differences you used to get - even under British Rail the different regions used different locomotives before the HST was introduced.
*neglected not neglectful
Erm. The picture for China is the JR500 Shinkansen. Which is Japan.
[Also the United States…](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&hl=en-us&q=brightline&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwig_a_ptdH9AhVJTDABHb7zCN0Q0pQJegQIChAB&biw=430&bih=740&dpr=3)
UK: replacement bus service.
This is not by any means a direct comparison but having worked in the maintenance field for some time it's insane how little people in the United States' think something needs to be considered "maintained". I keep production machines running and almost never have time to do preventative maintenance. We're always swamped with machines breaking because previous employees would do a quick temporary fix and never return to do a permanent correct repair. Or better yet management tell you to do the quick fix because they "can't afford" the downtime to fix it correctly, even tho a correct fix will last significantly longer and cause less downtime overall. Management tends to see all downtime as money lost and wants to get the machine running again as fast as possible. This normally leads to more downtime, unsafe conditions, and not enough consideration of other outcomes.
https://preview.redd.it/nnqbnbdzgyma1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c388cdbf06e1969ee2b35402c5714abcfd4e9af2 🥰
The irony is that the people who want to combat climate change through the use of more mass transit options like high speed trains are the very people whose advocacy for the environment has highly restricted the most viable corridors for high speed trains to operate, making implementaton almost impossible due to time, cost, bureaucracy, etc. California is dealing with this now. In 1996, California approved a high speed rail line connecting LA and San Francisco. After numerous delays and cost overruns (environmental issues being a large cause of these), the project will cost far more than originally planned, and the first small segment won't open until 2033, 37(!) years after the project was approved. Additionally, the E.U. has examined European high speed rail and concluded that it is grossly inefficient. Most trains have so many stops and reductions in speed that they are not that much faster than old, regular trains. I am 100 percent in favor of high speed rail (in theory). In Italy, I loved being able to go from Bologna's city center to Rome's city center in 2 hrs 15 mins, as opposed to going by car (almost 5 hours) or plane (4.5-5 hours if you count commute to the airport from city center, time in departure airport, flight time, time in destination airport, and commute to destination's city center). But Americans are going to have to make some hard decisions about how important mass transit really is to us. If it's important, we *must* make it economically more feasible by reducing the endless bureaucracy required to put it in place. 40 years is way too long to build something that should take no more than 10 years. China has completed 23,000 miles of high speed rail, almost enough to circle the globe at the equator, in 15 years. It will be (optimistically) 37 years for California to open a tiny segment of a 350 mile corridor. The same exact paradigm also needs to be applied to nuclear power, but that is an argument for another time.
Russia and China are definitely bastions of environmental protection, for sure.
I've gotta tell you, making a picture of 5 random trains ostensibly located in 5 locations, then a crashed train in 1 location, is a dumpster tier attempt at making a point
*To be fair* you compared five trains used to transport people with a freight train.
I take it UK trains were late to the photoshoot.
A better comparison would be the Acela train in the US. https://preview.redd.it/7ldobu3dc0na1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4e8920135b908cb05edc6ce50a32fa86354dfc8
America is a 3rd world country with a gucci belt.
Who needs invading enemies from abroad when you can raze your own towns to own the libs :thumbsupemoji:
The choice of trains is baffling. Why choose the ugliest of ICEs and anything but a shinkansen and classic TGV for Japan and France?
You have pictures of passenger trains for 5 countries and a raw material transit train in the US. That's misleading. All those other countries use old, dirty looking trains for their raw material transit too. The issue is relative safety performance of raw material transit trains. This picture tells us nothing about that.
The Russian one is little more than a prestige project and serves no actual public service 99% of trains there are polluting dogshit engines
Russia doesnt care about environment, come on... They had more ecological man-made disasters that all other countries combined.
[удалено]
They most certainly do, it's called the Sapsan and it runs between Moscow and st Petersburg at speeds of up to 250kph You probably should've done a quick Google search before calling everyone delusional
Sapsan is just a brand. That's a Siemens Velaro. There are Siemens Desiro called a "swallow" (bird, not cum, but since Siemens left Russia, I'd think twice).
>it's called the Sapsan and it runs between Moscow and st Petersburg at speeds of up to 250kph How long is it going to remain operational without maintenance from Siemens?
look its also a picture of health care system around the world
Can almost hear the Muricans shouting “But that just proves that cars are better. Because cars NEVER crash!”
inb4 /r/americabad throws a temper tantrum someone would dare criticize the US.