5 ms·

It's hard to understand for me why there even isn't any high-speed train service between large metropolitan areas in the US. As an example, in 2016 I took the

It's hard to understand for me why there even isn't any high-speed train service between large metropolitan areas in the US. As an example, in 2016 I took the train from New York to Montreal. The distance is only about 600 km, but the train ride took almost 12 hours! Part of that was due to the border checks of course, but even during the part in the States the train tucked along really slowly and had to stop multiple times to let cargo trains pass (which have priority over passenger trains it seems). In Europe, I also regularly took the train from Saarbrücken to Paris, which is not that different in terms of distance (around 500-550 km depending how you count) and takes just 1 hour 45 minutes. The great thing about Switzerland is their 30 minute schedule btw: Trains are scheduled so they arrive around 5 minutes before half in all major train stations, and depart around 5 minutes after half again, so that you can hop from one train to another with less than 10 minutes delay (and trains are on time in Switzerland). They're already planning to change those intervals to 15 minutes, which would basically turn Switzerland into one giant metropolitan area, with train schedules that feel more like subway connections.

mschuster91 6y ago
> which have priority over passenger trains it seems Historical reason: the rails were built by freight companies and not by the government like in most of Europe. For them, passenger trains are, at best, an afterthought that doesn't matter.
- fergbrain 6y ago
  Specifically the freight companies own the lines and prioritize their own freight trains above passenger service.
  - thu2111 6y ago
    And even more specifically, this means the US moves a lot more stuff by rail freight than in Europe, where the rail freight industry is sickly and dying.
    - mschuster91 6y ago
      The dimensions seem to be from another world, lol: > 4730 m – United States — The Kansas City Southern Railway regularly runs between Kansas City, MO and Shreveport, LA > 3658 m – United States – Trains are limited by air brake capability. electronically controlled pneumatic braked (180 wagons) – AAR Standard S-4200.[15] Meanwhile, ordinary German trains are limited to 740m (Europe wide/UIC limit: 750m) and single-stack operation because of overhead power lines. On the other side, the US has a lot of space that can be devoted to something like classification yards - the longer the train, the longer the yards have to be.
    - flyinghamster 6y ago
      I would dispute that, based on the amount of freight traffic I see on cab footage from Europe. What has changed is that much of it moves by container or unit train, so a lot of yard trackage is redundant now. The other thing to note is that the freights are shorter and more frequent, rather than the 200+-car monstrosities we have in the States (made possible by remotely-controlled diesels mid-train or pushing).
      - thu2111 6y ago
        Here's a report by the European rail freight industry: https://www.railfreightforward.eu/sites/default/files/usercontent/white_paper-30by2030-150dpi6.pdf https://www.railfreightforward.eu/sites/default/files/userco... "Maintaining its current modal share of 18% will pose a challenge for the rail freight sector due to three main factors: an expected change of goods structure, general logistic trends and the high intensity of road innovation." Railways are poor at moving freight in Europe due to: a) Sharing tracks with high speed passenger trains, which makes scheduling complicated b) Lack of agility compared to trucks which can go anywhere, change their routes at the drop of a hat, can turn up and leave at any time you wish. c) Being government subsidised, often nationalised, there's no innovation anywhere, nobody cares, all the usual problems of socialised infrastructure. Trucking is entirely privatised with many small firms instead of a tiny number of government run firms, so is more customer focused.
        6y ago
ptspts 6y ago
In Switzerland a train transfer time of 3 minutes in the schedule is not unheard of. You can easily make it, the two trains involved stop on the opposite side of the same platform.

mschuster91 6y ago

> which have priority over passenger trains it seems Historical reason: the rails were built by freight companies and not by the government like in most of Europe. For them, passenger trains are, at best, an afterthought that doesn't matter.

fergbrain 6y ago
Specifically the freight companies own the lines and prioritize their own freight trains above passenger service.
- thu2111 6y ago
  And even more specifically, this means the US moves a lot more stuff by rail freight than in Europe, where the rail freight industry is sickly and dying.
  - mschuster91 6y ago
    The dimensions seem to be from another world, lol: > 4730 m – United States — The Kansas City Southern Railway regularly runs between Kansas City, MO and Shreveport, LA > 3658 m – United States – Trains are limited by air brake capability. electronically controlled pneumatic braked (180 wagons) – AAR Standard S-4200.[15] Meanwhile, ordinary German trains are limited to 740m (Europe wide/UIC limit: 750m) and single-stack operation because of overhead power lines. On the other side, the US has a lot of space that can be devoted to something like classification yards - the longer the train, the longer the yards have to be.
  - flyinghamster 6y ago
    I would dispute that, based on the amount of freight traffic I see on cab footage from Europe. What has changed is that much of it moves by container or unit train, so a lot of yard trackage is redundant now. The other thing to note is that the freights are shorter and more frequent, rather than the 200+-car monstrosities we have in the States (made possible by remotely-controlled diesels mid-train or pushing).
    - thu2111 6y ago
      Here's a report by the European rail freight industry: https://www.railfreightforward.eu/sites/default/files/usercontent/white_paper-30by2030-150dpi6.pdf https://www.railfreightforward.eu/sites/default/files/userco... "Maintaining its current modal share of 18% will pose a challenge for the rail freight sector due to three main factors: an expected change of goods structure, general logistic trends and the high intensity of road innovation." Railways are poor at moving freight in Europe due to: a) Sharing tracks with high speed passenger trains, which makes scheduling complicated b) Lack of agility compared to trucks which can go anywhere, change their routes at the drop of a hat, can turn up and leave at any time you wish. c) Being government subsidised, often nationalised, there's no innovation anywhere, nobody cares, all the usual problems of socialised infrastructure. Trucking is entirely privatised with many small firms instead of a tiny number of government run firms, so is more customer focused.
      - 6y ago

ptspts 6y ago

In Switzerland a train transfer time of 3 minutes in the schedule is not unheard of. You can easily make it, the two trains involved stop on the opposite side of the same platform.