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Why do you think our rail infrastructure is pathetic? It's the largest freight rail networks in the world. It sucks for passengers but that's not relevant to t

Why do you think our rail infrastructure is pathetic? It's the largest freight rail networks in the world. It sucks for passengers but that's not relevant to this discussion.

username223 9y ago
You're right -- it's better than I thought, though it's still in the middle of the pack when measured by track per person or track per area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_transport_network_size https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_tran... I guess I'm biased by seeing all the abandoned rail, since it's well down from its peak.
- vinay427 9y ago
  > it's still in the middle of the pack when measured by track per person or track per area Both of those seem like somewhat irrelevant metrics. Why should a more densely populated country be penalized for having larger clusters of people compared to (based on this data) Canada or Russia? On the other end, why should a country with large swaths of unpopulated land cover it with rail to improve its track per area metric, which densely populated countries seem to do well on? It may be more useful to consider the efficiency and cost of freight rail, as well as the share of freight transit (per unit of distance, for instance) that is on rail.
  - username223 9y ago
    They're not perfect, but they seem useful to me: roughly how much stuff per mile is on your rails, and how far do you have to travel to reach it? Do you have some cost per mile figures to share?
- saalweachter 9y ago
  Check out the usage statistics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usage#Freight_rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag... Most tonnage shipped by rail in the world, with 10x more than the EU.
- secabeen 9y ago
  Yeah, the US rail system is the best in the world for freight. In other countries, passenger rail has priority, so the freight service suffers a bit. In the US, it's the other way around.
  - astrodust 9y ago
    That's also why Amtrak is such garbage compared to any civilized country.

Why do you think our rail infrastructure is pathetic? It's the largest freight rail networks in the world. It sucks for passengers but that's not relevant to this discussion.

username223 9y ago

You're right -- it's better than I thought, though it's still in the middle of the pack when measured by track per person or track per area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_transport_network_size https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_tran... I guess I'm biased by seeing all the abandoned rail, since it's well down from its peak.

vinay427 9y ago
> it's still in the middle of the pack when measured by track per person or track per area Both of those seem like somewhat irrelevant metrics. Why should a more densely populated country be penalized for having larger clusters of people compared to (based on this data) Canada or Russia? On the other end, why should a country with large swaths of unpopulated land cover it with rail to improve its track per area metric, which densely populated countries seem to do well on? It may be more useful to consider the efficiency and cost of freight rail, as well as the share of freight transit (per unit of distance, for instance) that is on rail.
- username223 9y ago
  They're not perfect, but they seem useful to me: roughly how much stuff per mile is on your rails, and how far do you have to travel to reach it? Do you have some cost per mile figures to share?
saalweachter 9y ago
Check out the usage statistics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usage#Freight_rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag... Most tonnage shipped by rail in the world, with 10x more than the EU.
secabeen 9y ago
Yeah, the US rail system is the best in the world for freight. In other countries, passenger rail has priority, so the freight service suffers a bit. In the US, it's the other way around.
- astrodust 9y ago
  That's also why Amtrak is such garbage compared to any civilized country.