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273

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[–] • 2 pts

Trains are already the most efficient form of transportation, with less rolling resistance per half mile of train than one of your car tires, paired with drafting rail cars and diesel engines. We have the Rockefeller’s lobbying against rail to force us all into cars for that one.

[–] • 1 pt

Yes. Trains pull an amazing amount of cargo for the amount of fuel used.

Sometimes I think it would be cool to have a train system, but I also like being able to get to work in 30 minutes.

[–] • 1 pt

We coulda had what the Japanese have, you can set your watch to their arrivals over there

[–] • 1 pt

In the US, fright trains stack two containers on a wagon, way higher than common locomotives. Electrification Europe style would double the length of fright trains.

[–] • 1 pt

There's a lot of infrastructure that would need to be in place. We have 2700 miles from coast to coast, that's a lot of overhead lines.

We just add more engines if we have bigger trains.

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

Europe has mostly dual-tracks and they rely heavily on signaling which allows for one train every few minutes. Smaller trains can be faster (60 to 90 mph in Germany compared to 40 to 70 in the US). But building an infrastructure that needs many decades to amortize is impossible nowadays.

Edit: 90 mph for fright trains. Bullet trains 186 mph (French: 200, Chinese: 220).

[–] • 0 pt

We just don't need that kind of infrastructure here. For people moving, we have a wide road system. For freight, you don't necessarily need to move it fast, just move a lot of it.