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The US has more rail than any other country in the world. [1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_transport_network_size https://en.m
by ApolloFortyNine 5y ago
The US has more rail than any other country in the world. [1]
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_transport_network_size https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_tr...
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agomiles of track per square mile, or alternatively, miles of track per square mile of population above N-per-unit-area would be a much more meaningful statistic.
- ApolloFortyNine 5y agoI'm not sure population is too important here, that stat would just make dense countries look 'better'. In reality if you want to ship something from California to DC by Rail, it really doesn't matter that 95% of those 3000 miles have almost no one living nearby. We're talking about Semi Trucks here, so clearly this conversation is in regards to cargo.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agoHence my second proposed statistic. "3000 miles of track to service land holding 60 million people" vs. "100,000 miles of track to service land holding 50 million people". (the numbers are invented, not real)
- ApolloFortyNine 5y agoHence my first proposed comment, "that stat would just make dense countries look 'better'". The U.S has a lot of empty land, so this would just be a manufactured stat with arguable meaning.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agoNo, it wouldn't because the only land that would "count" would have more than N people per square mile. So in the US, North Dakota would barely count for anything.