this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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The feds still technically own large portions of the rail system, why would they throw themselves under the bus.
That’s absolutely false. The feds only own small, short rail for passenger services. Other than that they own the northeast corridor from Washington DC to Boston. All other rail is directly owned by the rail companies. The feds really should nationalize the rail and have these cartels pay to use the rail. That way the fed can actually make sure the rail is in good condition and stop these big chemical spills.
Yeah privatization of rail was an absolute disaster
Yeah, turns out letting companies run critical infrastructure incentivizes them to pay as little as possible to keep it running.
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Is this a general indictment of railroad companies, or am I about to read about something ghastly in the news?
No, but apparently you missed the largest chemical spill in US history while you were asleep over the last year or so.
and the one that happened after that.
and the other one that happened again right after that.
Oh, I don't doubt that they have a horrible track record, I know how that scene from the meme ends.
You know how sometimes you hear about breaking events from memes? I was wondering if this was that.
track record
I see what you did there
There was a massive ammonia spill in the last few days.
Thanks, I found a story about that: article
That's scary stuff, ammonia's no joke. It sounds like if the wind was blowing the other way several people could have been teargassed to death. Imagine if that happened in a city...
I wish i could sleep for about a year or so.
It's not a US only issue
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_rail_disaster
Railroad companies need to be shut down and the whole thing needs to be nationalized.
I worked as a conductor for a little while. It's a law that anything containing hazardous materials HAS to move after a certain amount of time. I personally toured over 100 cars of hazmat from one end of the yard, through town, and back around into the other end of the yard so we could say it moved.
Huh, just like parking in the city
That's.... exactly what it's like. Yeah.
Except there are consequences for citizens parking in the city.
American passenger trains are absurdly bad, I tried to book a return between two neighboring cities and evey single thing about it is stupid and expensive. I would have had to book the exact train which is annoying anyway but to make ot worse any at a useful time are are all insane prices and the train stations were both awkward and stupid. We might have to kill time waiting for our exact train but we can't do it near the station because theres nothing there.
You guys need to start acting upset that china is so fad ahead and get everyone charged up to update the railways.
I live in Australia. The US has excellent trains in comparison. Not that it's hard.
Australian trains are easier to use and cleaner and have good stations they are just few and slow and have no prospect of ever being upgraded
And full of junkies shooting up in the bathrooms..at least that was my experience in 2nd class.
Never tried 1st class, maybe it's better
I've taken the Cardinal four times and the only upsides were no TSA inspection (which they're talking about changing) and no size limits on luggage. Other than that everything was a fucking nightmare. Like, overflowing toilets with turds sliding around on the floor of the bathroom, 8 hour delays, departure time at 3am... bad. The first time I took it for the experience, the second time I took it because, "well shit happens right? Maybe it was a fluke." It wasn't a fluke. The only way it would be worth it would be if tickets were like $30.
Nationalize the rails.
Everybody gives the German rail flak for being late all the time and for 100 years-old technology and lacking personnel. But rail crashes are really rare. You gotta give them that. The switches may be operated by hand, but they’re safe.
The switches may be operated by hand, but they’re safe.
Yeah, about that, check what happened in Greece a year ago (~60 people dead and the government still tries hard to interfere with justice): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempi_train_crash
(I'm mentioning Greece, because I think our rails don't have many fail-safes and are kinda manually operated.)
The secret is to undercook the industrial regulations. Everyone will get to know each other on k street.
its still funny to me that organ transit is just done in a vehicle, in a styrofoam cooler. They just put stickers on the back of the vehicle and call it a day.
Norfolk Southern, what's your function?
"Flyin' off the rails and hitting everyone!"
Don't forget oil tankers and cruise ships with their fuel, cargo, and waste.
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