• BeeegScaaawyCripple@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      it takes me 24 hours to go by train the same distance it takes me to fly 1.5 hours. and the cost is the same. there are some problems.

      • recklessengagement@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        This has more to do with how commuter trains are forced to give priority to freight trains, causing delays, than actual travel times

        • BeeegScaaawyCripple@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          no it has to do with stopping at every damn town and there being mountains that slow the trains the fuck down from whatever speed y’all imagine them being able to go to like, 40mph. but please go off.

      • plyth@feddit.org
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        1 day ago

        If you go 300km/h by train and 900km/h by plane then the numbers don’t add up.

      • Awkwardparticle@programming.dev
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        18 hours ago

        I know two neurodivergent people that love trains, one is into models and the other trainspotting. They are correct too, trains are awesome.

      • dickalan@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Yes, but how does that pertain to this picture, I would need like a before and after photo to know any context for this image, thank you for sharing, though I appreciate the response response

        • 5too@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          If Tylenol caused autism, there would be a lot more support for trains in the U.S.

        • EldritchFemininity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 day ago

          In short, the US has absolutely zero high-speed rail infrastructure - and barely any rail infrastructure at all compared to what it used to have and the size of the country.

          This was one of many proposed high-speed rail networks from (I think) the late 2000s/early 2010s, but the fledgling train companies were largely strangled or bought up and closed by freight rail, car, and fossil fuel companies, so nothing ever happened.

        • pedz@lemmy.ca
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          1 day ago

          In two parts.

          1. The before map would be of the only high speed train the US currently has, and it’s the Acela Express. So, something like this.

          1. If lots of people are consuming Tylenol in day to day life, and it causes autism, and some autistic people love trains, then the US should have a system like the map posted.
          • Taldan@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            I always forget the Acela is technically a high speed rail. It would only actually be a tiny fraction of that line. Less than 10% of the line is HSR

            • ExLisperA
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              17 hours ago

              Acela trains are the fastest in the Americas, reaching 150–160 miles per hour (240–260 km/h) (qualifying as high-speed rail), but only for approximately 40 miles (64 km) of the 457-mile (735 km) route.

              That has to be the slowest high-speed rail in the world. 260km/h is not even that fast and it only reaches this speed for couple minutes.

  • Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The most efficient would be 3 major east/west lines, Boston to Seattle, DC to San Francisco, and Atlanta to LA, connected by a series of north/south lines to form a grid. On the east coast, just extend the Acela down to Atlanta.

    • Soup@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      You need to hit major centres and you need to consider common trips to be efficient. You’re talking about the most efficient per station but most efficient per passenger is going to look different. This image doesn’t see too bad and can still have branching lines.

      • Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        The biggest concern with that setup is how inefficient it is to reach the Pacific Northwest region, LA is a serious bottleneck on top of being a common endpoint in and of itself. A line that goes straight to either Seattle or Portland from the Northeast simplifies things a lot.

        • Soup@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          LA is a bottleneck if you assume every single line and dot is perfectly equal. If we’re already imaging a well built system then that green line would have a higher frequency of train to accommodate what you’re talking about and it’s station(s) would be large enough to handle the fact that it would absolutely be a major hub.

          Efficiency is not always about perfection for every single trip. Cars(in a car-centric hellhole, at least) will take you from your driveway to your destination parking lot but they are vastly inferior to the overall efficiency of a metro that you walk five minutes to and is then five minutes from your destination. This is highspeed rail, there’s not much extra time being taken if you don’t go direct direct, it’ll be fine.

        • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 day ago

          The problem is that population distribution means that almost nobody is going to be getting on or off the train between Minneapolis and Seattle. The population of North Dakota is 800k, South Dakota is 925k, Nebraska is 2 million, Montana is 1.1 million, Wyoming is 590k, Idaho is 2 million. That’s nearly a whole quadrant of the country with less population than the Houston metro area. If we’re building trains, let’s build trains in Houston and serve the same number of people with like a tiny percentage of track that it would take to serve the upper plains states.

          • EldritchFemininity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 day ago

            I think those are lines with standard passenger train service on them, though I can’t remember the reasoning for that. Might have been the states there refused to cooperate with the company or it could just be a terrain issue with the rail grade being too steep or winding for high-speed rail.

  • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    I assume the gray gaps are due to red states refusing to get on the Tylenol/Autism Train, but I can’t believe, if the Autist Party were in power, they wouldn’t insist on connecting ALL the dots.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It’s kind of weird too because logistically the northern border is the easiest place to expand rails: big flat great planes region, with both of the two largest rivers for ferrying in supplies, followed by a bypass around the bulk of the rocky mountains into Oregon or Washington State.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        It’s about need. Like yeah, Chicago through the Dakotas is easy as pie, but the demand would be to seattle and that crosses two mountain ranges and the only stops between Minnesota and Seattle with much demand there would be at national parks.

        Like yeah it would be awesome as hell and the American version of the CCP would absofuckinglutely have a high speed rail to Yellowstone and the badlands since they’re on the way. But Yellowstone is past the start of the mountains and you need to connect all the way to seattle for it to be more than a vanity project.

        The important lines are the NY-Chicago (land is dirt cheap for lots of it, mountains are small, and population is dense with several makor cities you can hit) and the west coast line (basically actually do California high speed rail, then extend it from San Diego to just outside British Columbia. From there the east coast line, something involving texas, or stretching the ny-chicago line is good.

    • LolaCat@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Its the other way around, there needs to be as many ways to get out of Florida as possible.

      • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        One reason for this is hurricanes are more frequent, and sometimes the notice level is too short to have safe evacuation from Miami through highway systems. There has been anger over deaths from evacuation, when a storm warning did not destroy as many homes as was “hoped”/feared.

  • muffedtrims@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I would think that Kansas City would be a bigger hub since it already has a lot of rail through there and is more central in the country.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      As would I. There is an existing line from Kansas City to Tulsa to OKC that has been talked about being opened for passengers for a couple decades.

  • OrteilGenou@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    What a beautiful sight.

    It’s too bad Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood is such a flimsy underrepresentation of the average American oil tycoon

  • 2FortGaming@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    WIll the prices not be as bad? Amtrack costs like $270 from Clevland to Colorodo which I know is a travaling half of the country but thats not cheap for me

    • anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      13 hours ago

      If you buy a ticket last minute for a high speed train it will stay expensive. Train people want you to be predictable, so book ahead and pay around half price.
      Slower trains will obviously be free at point of use.