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Tesla buys German railway line, now hosting passenger trains
- palata 3y agoIt is ironic to build a railway line to help building more cars.
- pipo234 3y agoI suppose building running trains across railway lines autonomously is simpler than running trucks across highways.
- stephen_g 3y agoWell, yeah, automatic train control is extremely common. More within the confines of metro systems though, where lines are fully fenced off or in tunnels.
- johannes1234321 3y agoAlso in the high speed lines, where breaking distances are too long otherwise. The engineer is just observing the systems and acting in unforseen situations.
- hutzlibu 3y agoNot to me. Railroads cover only so much area, leaving the last (hundred) miles to cars. So it is not an either or question and should be stopped treated as such ( in certain circles). Germany has a quite good railroad system, but you really won't get far outside the cities, unless you live close to a train station (like I do intentionally) and have your target close to a train station. And buses to a remote village from the last train station? Check your calendar and not your watch for the next one.
- shmde 3y agoThis is so much bullshit. Just because your government refuses to build passenger railways and push car centric infra doesnt mean "Railways cover only so much area". Very difficuly to reach regions like islands/mountaineous terrains ? Then maybe.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hutzlibu 3y agoGuess what germany has lots of? Not many high mountains, but lots of high enough mountains and valleys, that you need lots of expensive bridges to pass. I happen to live right next to a big one, that was build 1850 and is now getting renovated. They are already working on it since 2 years and plan to be finished maybe next year. All this, for one already existing bridge. There is no way you can cover even half the villages by train. And before you declare incompetence, well first, you have to work with what you have and secondly, you have to work without stopping the existing trains too much as it is in use and alternative routes very long. (so they work mostly at night and don't care how many babies try to sleep) Edit: Also, do you expect that all lines get served all the time? Or do you declare that no one has any reason to go anywhere in the middle of the night? Cars are somewhat more flexible in that regard. Also, do you know what happens if one train breaks down? It cannot just be pulled to the side, like a car can. It will block the whole line. So even if you radicalize everything and use lots of autonomous small trains that can react flexible to passengers request(something that should be worked on today), it would not solve everything. Flexibility is very valuable. A train can only go where there are tracks. A car anywhere, where it is flat enough. Solve that, if you want to completely get rid of cars.
- Akronymus 3y ago> There is no way you can cover even half the villages by train. Thats why you combine them with buses for the remainder.
- 3y ago
- MrBuddyCasino 3y agome, driving by car to the bicycle factory: Ha. Haha. This is so ironic.
- clouddrover 3y agoIt's not irony, it's infrastructure. People are routinely transported by rail, sea, and air. Even cars are routinely transported by rail, sea, and air. These trains run on diesel so if Telsa wants to be more serious they'll put hydrogen fuel cell or BEV trains into service: https://insideevs.com/news/685080/tesla-giga-berlin-train-shuttle-opens-runs-on-diesel/ https://insideevs.com/news/685080/tesla-giga-berlin-train-sh...
- ben_w 3y agoSurely the easiest option is to electrify the line rather than to retrofit the vehicles? (I'm genuinely surprised the train isn't already electric; if I've been on a diesel here, I've not noticed).
- orra 3y agoAbsolutely. Electrification is way (2x? 3x?) more efficient than producing and transporting clean hydrogen, or using an electric battery. Using batteries isn't a goal. It's something we do when there is no alternative.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- johannes1234321 3y agoElectrifying a line isn't as easy as simply pulling a cable. You need more space above the train for the power line, which means all bridges and tunnels have to be adapted, thus rebuilt. You need space in the side to place the masts, which may mean acquiring land or some complex engineering in close (hilly?) areas. This then often means that regulation treats it as a major change, thus the whole signaling system and other aspects have to be adapted to current standards. And then you need all the side infrastructure like substations etc. In the end it's almost as expensive as building a new line.
- ben_w 3y ago
- sschueller 3y agoIt's ironic not because of the cars but because of the garbage that is Hyperloop and the Boring tunnel stuff.
- w-m 3y agoVW opened a car factory / exhibition space in the city center of Dresden 20 years ago [0]. It was already connected with tram tracks, so they built a freight tram that would run through the city to deliver parts to the factory [1]. It was always quite a sight to behold when they passed in front of the baroque architecture of the Zwinger. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_Factory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_Factory [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CarGoTram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CarGoTram
- kalleboo 3y agoBoth trains and cars have their place in the transportation landscape It's only ironic because Musk has been so openly hostile towards trains. https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-awkward-dislike-mass-transit/ https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-awkward-dislike-mass-t... “I think public transport is painful. It sucks. Why do you want to get on something with a lot of other people, that doesn’t leave where you want it to leave, doesn’t start where you want it to start, doesn’t end where you want it to end? And it doesn’t go all the time.” “It’s a pain in the ass,” he continued. “That’s why everyone doesn’t like it. And there’s like a bunch of random strangers, one of who might be a serial killer, OK, great. And so that’s why people like individualized transport, that goes where you want, when you want.” When the audience member responded that public transportation seemed to work in Japan, Musk shot back, “What, where they cram people in the subway? That doesn’t sound great.”
- justusw 3y agoWow… has he been on a train?
- HWR_14 3y agoHe lived in NYC for a while, so you would have to assume he did. But who knows.
- palata 3y agoWasn't he always rich af? I would assume he didn't.
- TheHappyOddish 3y agoNo. Pre 1999 he cane from a wealthy family but he raised his own money and paid hs own way through university, with hare-brained schemes and internships. In 1999, the company he and his brother founded got aquired for a large sum of money.
- robertlagrant 3y ago
- wodenokoto 3y agoMore ironic than ships that move cars? Or cars that moves cars?
- readthenotes1 3y agoOr a shipping shipping shipping shipping ships?
- smcl 3y agoI mean if the car company's owner had publicly tried to undermine ships and said everyone should have an individual yacht or plane instead then, yeah that would be a little amusing sure.
- robertlagrant 3y agoOxford has an old railway line to serve the Mini plant. It's going to be invested in to make another rail route out of Oxford for passengers[0], which is fun! [0] https://www.oxford.gov.uk/news/article/2146/oxford_rail_plans_progress https://www.oxford.gov.uk/news/article/2146/oxford_rail_plan...
- mcv 3y agoMakes me wonder how many train factories are serviced by trucks.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- DocTomoe 3y agoTrain stations dedicated to bring workers to car factories are a common thing in Germany. Opel has one (Rüsselsheim Opelwerk), so does Audi (Ingolstadt Audi), and probably many more.
- akie 3y agoGoogle cache: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:NcurNy1yT8kJ:https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/tesla-buys-german-railway-line-plans-passenger-trains-2/&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=de https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:NcurNy...
- q87b 3y ago> Tesla built a train station at the end of its new short line *specifically to serve its new Gigafactory outside Berlin.* Emphasis mine. I was worried but this seems quite irrelevant to the German passenger landscape. Phew!
- stephen_g 3y agoYes, this is just a short branch to service their factory. Not what people usually mean when they say 'railway line' (which would usually have more than one station).
- Aardwolf 3y agoIt's got to have at least 2, even this one I hope
- stephen_g 3y agoNot many details in the article but it says they built a station, which probably means the trains they have contracted come from a station on the main line (not owned by Tesla), branch off and run to the Telsa station and then go back.
- masklinn 3y agoAh so it’s just a company / warehouse rail extension? Pretty much a standard feature for decades?
- stkdump 3y agoIt is a standard feature for many factories, but usually for transporting cargo, not passengers/commuters.
- wolframhempel 3y agoBecause Deutsche Bahn is doing such a splendid job and it'd be a shame to have an alternative to it?
- luplex 3y agoA friend of mine works there and commutes daily from Berlin. She said the train won't change that much. Before that, they had a shuttle bus service. The more annoying thing is that the fast commuter trains mentioned in the article run in irregular intervals throughout the day.
- diimdeep 3y agoHow in the world it is OK, that is such integral part of sovereign country infrastructure is sold to another country on a different continent ? This is a way to shoot yourself in the foot, and seems like Germany is sold by pieces to U.S.
- RamblingCTO 3y agoRead the story before complaining.
- arianvanp 3y agoI find it kind of funny that they're using a Diesel-powered train to drive people to a Tesla-factory .
- devoutsalsa 3y agoAt least the diesel engine powers the electric motors at the wheels! How a Diesel-Electric Locomotive Works -- https://youtu.be/cIQ0yIZgQeE?si=vtvRg8RAXjkRB-za https://youtu.be/cIQ0yIZgQeE?si=vtvRg8RAXjkRB-za
- rstarast 3y agoMap of the area https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/52.4039/13.7938 https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/52.4039/13.7938 It's the link from Erkner to the factory.