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.
“What if we raised the prices of necessities?” - genius MBA thinking of our time.
They own several sections of track and you forgot to mention that it’s the most popular publicly owned transit in the US. It’s not insignificant. And similarly they still maintain interest in the transcontinental railroad they just do not gain a profit or have complete control. You also fail to note that the federal government owns Amtrak so how exactly was what I said “completely false”.
Wrong again, the most popular US public transportation would go to the New York City Subway. At 2 billion rides a year compared to Amtrack’s about 23 million rides a year. It is insignificant compared to the hundred and sixty thousand miles of rail in the US. Amtrak only owns 750 miles of track. So you tell me is .4% of all the rail in the US significant? The only interest the feds maintain in US rail, aside from owning amtrack, is in regulating railroads and transportation. Those agencies would be the federal railroad administration and the surface transportation board, along with state regulators in some states. What you said is completely false, as you said “the feds still technically own large portions of the rail system” and I’m telling you that .4% is not large portions of the rail system.
You forgot to add x100 to your calculations - it’s <0.48%
No. 750/160000 = 0.0047
Yes, and now make that into percentage, not just a fraction.
exactly… 0.0047 is 0.47% of 1. you forgot to shift the decimal
Spitting out the statistics, what a legend. Appreciate the write up!
City light rail shouldn’t come up in talk about railways. Compare Amtrak to other intercity rail operators if you want to compare
Rail shouldn’t come up in talks about rail. Okay, that makes total sense. Maybe pay attention to the fact that they are both passenger rail. One is inner city, the other is between cities. And the entire reason I brought it up was because I’m replying to a comment where they said amtrack is the most popular public transportation. You and them both need better reading comprehension.
What other intercity passenger rail operators are there to speak of? And what does that have to do with who owns the actual rails?
Brightline. That’s the new one that keeps clobbering idiot Floridian drivers that insist they can beat the train.
But that doesn’t hold a candle to Amtrak’s coverage.
We don’t have any other intercity public rail. It’s all Amtrak
The New York subway system isn’t federal, it’s state.
No, it’s not. A thousand miles of track is more then exists in all of some countries.
I think your idea of large is just skewed, short lines are a thing and are often shorter then 750 though that is changing with rapid consolidation.
“They own several sections of track and you forgot to mention that it’s the most popular publicly owned transit in the US.” I don’t know how you came to the conclusion that I said the New York subway is federal. I said that it is actually the most popular public transportation in the US. Okay cool some countries have less than 1000 miles of rail, I’m sure I could have figured that out on my own. But the US has 160,000 miles and 750 of that is, guess what, .4%. So yes it’s fucking small compared to the total rail in the US. My idea of large is not skewed in the slightest, 160,000 is much bigger than 750, simple maths. Yeah short lines are a thing, and guess what, they are not long. It honestly makes no sense that you are comparing amtrack to countries that don’t have much rail, when the entire conversation is about US rail. Like I can say that the US has more miles of road than Cuba, but that has no impact on how many of the roads are paved vs dirt in the US. That’s pretty much what you are saying. Let me put it this way, there was approximately 245 billion miles traveled in 2021 for European passenger rail. While for the same year amtrack had 12.1 million miles traveled. Which if you do the math is .005%.
How exactly is state regulated state funded subway relevant to federally regulated partially federally funded railroads? It’s not in my opinion but if you’re going somewhere with it I’m intrigued.
Correct, it’s not gigantic but for a federal rail system even the “small” Amtrak section it in itself isn’t small.
Nope, I think it’s skewed. If you think that small section isn’t enough for governmental interest in lack of regulation I think you’re absolutely mistaken.
Much like how the NYC subway is in no way related to federal rail or federally regulated rail. I don’t even think mta handles hazmat in any way at all whatsoever so how does it matter in relation to chemical spills?
Again, I think you’re simply not willing to connect the dots.
Btw that’s 137000 miles of publicly funded highly regulated passenger rail which by your account we have 750 miles. And you claim I’m bringing up irrelevant stuff.
Which of the recent chemical spills have been on federally owned rail?
I hate it when Amtrak dumps hazardous waste everywhere!
None as far as I’m aware. The point is they make a profit so they have the same reason to avoid being regulated well enough.
None as far as I’m aware
Wow, I guess that kind of makes that a totally irrelevant derailing of this post about chemical spills on railways.
The chemical spills are because of lack of regulation. Agreed?
That lack of regulation is because of for profit companies going as cheap as possible to make more money. Agreed?
The federal government owns a for profit passenger line that is comparatively large to other private passenger lines in the us. Agreed?
The federal government has a hand in regulating the same rails it has a stake in. Agreed?
So how exactly are these things not relevant in relation to chemical spills due to lack of regulation… Like what?
They’re federally mandated to run a profit. It’s actually a problem just not the one you think
No that’s exactly the problem I think it is. If they’re mandated to turn a profit the federal government then has a perverse incentive to have weak regulation that allows greater profit margins.
it’s the most popular publicly owned transit in the US
compared next to what? Fucking nasa?
Other federally controlled rail systems. You’re still ignoring the actual point.
dude im pretty sure disney world could arguably be classified as a private transportation company with how much transportation they have in their campus.
Of course amtrak is the most highly rated public transit system, it’s the only fucking one that exists.
They are, its literally called Disney Transport and on top of that they have the cruise line contracts and partial ownership.
The fact it exists at all is my point.
You fail to note that those rails are irrelevant to the conversation.
Stop being an idiot choosing to completely miss and obfuscate the point. It’s just… pathetic.
They’re not, they have interest in not being regulated well enough for the same reason any other for profit business does.
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-Mégantic_rail_disaster
Railroad companies need to be shut down and the whole thing needs to be nationalized.
Not the topic. Not the point.
So the topic wasn’t how railroads are operated by irresponsible companies?
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
But y’all have road trains!
You guys don’t have road trains?
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.
That’s what beginners think is the secret. The real secret is not holding people accountable and shielding them from litigious liability. Companies would regulate themselves if they had to pay for EVERYTHING the second they screw up.
Companies would regulate themselves after watching a couple players in the market get their corporate charter permanently revoked
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.
I’m sure AOC will be there ready to vote to keep the rail corporations safe from union strikes. Yas queeeeeen
Remember when Trump forced the protesting railroad workers to go back to work? What a fascist right? …just kidding, Biden did that.
The strike was about paid sick days, but remember when Biden repealed major railroad safety regulations? Just kidding, Trump did that.
Remember Biden deregulating the rails, allowing these corporate vultures to pick apart worker and bystander safety for quarter-of-a-percent profit margins?
Wait, that was Reagan.
