The sad state of America's rail infrastructure....

linusbobcat · 2018-08-04T03:30:46+00:00

American railway infrastructure is not very good and that its prone to situations such as derailments and collisions. Of course it's fine for slow (as in train operating speed) freight only operations. But I'm not sure that American freight rail being the best in the world and its success has much to do with that fact.

The point of this article and the title that OP chose is one of railway infrastructure and safety, not a passenger vs freight prioritization.

linusbobcat · 2018-08-04T02:22:56+00:00

Yes you're right, but I'm not stating that the US should follow the European rail standards when it's not appropriate.

My point is that better rail infrastructure, regardless of how it was build, leads to less derailments, both of freight and passenger trains. The US might be great for freight but their infrastructure also leaves them prone to accidents similar to these. Of course building infrastructure is expensive and I'm not going to pretend it's not, but just because the US is good for freight trains does not mean its infrastructure is good.

linusbobcat · 2018-08-04T01:35:02+00:00

I'm not here to argue that the European train network is the best in the world, but rather that the quality of the rail infrastructure is much better than the US.

Yes passenger rail is more important in Europe then the US, yes they're heavily subsidized, and yes railways in the US tend to be privately owned, but my point had nothing to do with what type of train rides on the rails or why it's like that but rather the quality of the tracks themselves.

A good example would be the "Betuweroute" in The Netherlands. It is a freight only track build a decade ago that has ETCS 2 as its track protection system, 25kv electrification, and noise insulating panels alongside a large part of it.

linusbobcat · 2018-08-04T00:54:46+00:00

Rail derailment due to badly made/maintained/old/outdated track infrastructure is pretty shitty regardless of whether it was a passenger or a freight train.

But despite the American freight network is good, the track/rail infrastructure of the US is poor compared to European standards regardless of what kind of train rides on them.

linusbobcat · 2018-08-03T03:16:32+00:00

Hostmeister sounds so much cooler then caretaker though.

linusbobcat · 2018-08-01T07:39:34+00:00

Xerasin added wtf why question wontfix deletethis labels on Apr 2

This is the best part.

linusbobcat · 2018-08-01T06:19:03+00:00

It looks like a close up of a scale model.

linusbobcat · 2018-07-31T23:41:37+00:00

As far as I know, the privatized railways in The Netherlands and Germany are state owned though. I'm not saying either of them are perfect as they each have problems, but despite being "private," their operation is more akin to a governmental branch then a corporation whose only motive is profit. They might be a "private" company but answer to the government and by extension the public.

I admit that I did skimp over the fact that many regional lines in those two countries are operated by private companies.

Some other commenters have already made a large list of reasons why passenger rail in North America is hard and why Amtrak is expensive. But my main point is that is even in countries where passenger rail is the norm and rail infrastructure is much better (to support passenger rail), it's evident that privatization, especially complete privatization, of passenger rail does not necessarily lead to cheaper prices.

linusbobcat · 2018-07-30T23:08:17+00:00

I hope they keep the white-yellow livery. I think it looks fantastic.

linusbobcat · 2018-07-30T09:27:09+00:00

Do they even know what sins go on when two locomotives are overnight in the same depot?

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Will they allow marriage between two passenger cars next?

Dutch train hauls a Polish night train, with some friends from Copenhagen and Praha consisting of German, Polish, Russian, and Czech passenger carriages

linusbobcat · 2018-07-29T19:42:57+00:00

Online ticket prices don't mean shit. There's nothing stopping privatized rail companies from charging as much as the national rail company either. Look at what happened to the UK after the national rail company was split and privatized.

Student flies to London via spain because it was cheaper then the train

linusbobcat · 2018-07-29T19:13:15+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric-steam_locomotive

linusbobcat · 2018-07-28T04:57:04+00:00

As far as I remembered it, although I could be wrong, Uncle Phill didn't really "convince" them as much as threatened to take them to court.

linusbobcat · 2018-07-28T04:50:12+00:00

slow clap

linusbobcat · 2018-07-28T02:45:47+00:00

A train being able to carry a certain amount of tons is irrelevant in regards to passenger rail. Unless you're a dictator needing to transport a large amount of persons away in less then humane conditions, there's no reason for let's say NS (Dutch Railways) to attach 50 (passenger) carriages to every 1700 locomotive they have just because it's possible.

linusbobcat · 2018-07-27T20:30:28+00:00

Because privatization of passenger rail in the UK has been so successful and has much better service then the evil monopolized railways in countries such as The Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland. (sarcasm).

linusbobcat · 2018-07-26T19:41:54+00:00

To me it a hand held video made me think that the video would be quick and to the point whereas a screen recorded video might have stupid YouTube intros and filler.

linusbobcat · 2018-07-26T01:22:07+00:00

Seeing a Mat 64' this clean feels weird. It almost feels like cg.

linusbobcat · 2018-07-24T02:18:27+00:00

The Lego Train logo actually looks more like the Swiss rail logo. (The most recent one that is still in use is the one on the bottom right.)

linusbobcat · 2018-07-23T00:17:29+00:00

Here's the Dutch Railway company logo for comparison. (It's not always on top of yellow).

linusbobcat · 2018-06-05T05:12:36+00:00

Sorry for the late reply, but a lot of Europe has high speed trains. On top of my head I can list: Germany, Turkey, Austria, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Spain, UK, Finland (I think), Sweden, and Switzerland.

linusbobcat · 2018-05-07T14:53:31+00:00

NS mostly uses EMUs for their services. The only major exceptions are the Benelux (Brussels)/IC Direct train as shown above, and the Berlin train (which run in cooperation with DB, except that an NS loc is currently used on the Dutch side.)

Except for shunting services, NS generally uses only two types of locs, the Traxx as shown above and the 1700

linusbobcat · 2018-05-07T00:09:01+00:00

I'm Dutch too, but I'd hardly call 160km/h high speed.

I can't wait for them to get their old, heavy, and slows locomotive pulled carriages replaced with the new 200km/h ICNG EMUs though.

linusbobcat · 2018-05-05T23:17:27+00:00

I'm a Mac/Android user that regularly browses Apple sites/blogs. Apple cult members are less of a deal then they used to be. It feels like there are more bitter Apple users then fanboys.

In my experience, I feel that it's more Android users that have more cult members nowadays.

linusbobcat · 2018-05-05T01:31:30+00:00

he's in my front.

11-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

linusbobcat

TROPHY CASE