174

Ultimate Amtrak experience (hexbear.net)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by RNAi@hexbear.net to c/urbanism@hexbear.net

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[-] D3FNC@hexbear.net 46 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I took an amtrak from El Paso to Austin one time, took well over two days. I got to the train station early because I heard it was unpredictable; they were four hours late. They stopped overnight in San Antonio for absolutely no reason. Later I realized flying would have been cheaper.

It's like a 10-12 hour drive if I remember correctly, it's been a few decades but I still remember how much the whole ordeal pissed me off, having come from a country with functional rail.

[-] RNAi@hexbear.net 17 points 10 months ago

Dang that sounds exactly like Argentina lmao, except the 700km-24hours-train-trips are dirty cheap

[-] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 45 points 10 months ago

yeonmi-park and in capitalist america the trains crash round the clock, you can set your watch to a derailment.

[-] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 15 points 10 months ago

Brandon made the trains derail on time.

[-] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 14 points 10 months ago

Except in capitalist America the people are decadent and weak and cannot push the train.

[-] iridaniotter@hexbear.net 30 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Is this just the second Amtrak derailment of the year or am I forgetting a third?

edit: IT WAS A TRUCK THAT DID IT 😠

[-] ped_xing@hexbear.net 16 points 10 months ago

I wish the NTSB's scope would expand. A truck fucking up a train requires that the root cause be addressed so no truck will fuck up a train in the same way again. But that won't happen because trucks are sold as freedom machines.

[-] WayeeCool@hexbear.net 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

But that won't happen because trucks are sold as freedom machines.

That isn't it at all. It's not truck driver "freedom" in the way but the freight railroad companies not wanting to be told they need to remove at-grade crossings. It's because removing an at-grade-crossing is expensive and puts tracks out of commission for a few days minimum.

https://railroads.dot.gov/program-areas/highway-rail-grade-crossing/highway-rail-grade-crossings-overview

To fix this problem you have to rebuild either the road or tracks to go over or under each other. Only US area this is being done is California where the State Government has been removing at-grade crossings, with each removal often requiring a long drawn out lawsuit between the State and freight railroads. California has been doing it for almost a decade now in preparation for high speed rail (real high speed rail, not that shit advertised as high speed rail on the East Coast and Florida).

[-] Feinsteins_Ghost@hexbear.net 29 points 10 months ago

Capitalism, crashing trains 24/7

[-] axont@hexbear.net 28 points 10 months ago

Is it consensus that Amtrak is bad on purpose so that Americans won't demand more trains

[-] Maoo@hexbear.net 26 points 10 months ago

Amtrak is bad because it shares rail with freight so it's slow as shit, has to wait for other non-passenger rail to pass, and has to operate on rail intended for maximum speeds of the 1800s. It takes 3-4 days to get halfway across the country. This is before we consider how few places it connects.

It is also, somehow, expensive. More expensive than flying. Sometimes 2-3X as much.

[-] wtypstanaccount04@hexbear.net 15 points 10 months ago

It's bad because the freight rail companies own the tracks and don't give a shit about safety along with Amtrak being a weird quasi-governmental organization with neoliberal profitability drive.

[-] Othello@hexbear.net 25 points 10 months ago

i love mayas vibe.

[-] copandballtorture@hexbear.net 23 points 10 months ago

Damn, with optimism like this, Maya would make a killing as a spin doctor in DC

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 22 points 10 months ago

Complimentary mini water bottles should settle it.

[-] darkmode@hexbear.net 14 points 10 months ago

In communist China they give out treats simply for delayed trains

[-] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 10 points 10 months ago

Optimistic Liquid Event.

[-] lntl@lemmy.ml 19 points 10 months ago

Still 14x safer than cars/trucks?

[-] darkmode@hexbear.net 24 points 10 months ago

I never would've guessed Ferryboats are pulling those numbers

[-] The_Walkening@hexbear.net 9 points 10 months ago

I can imagine lots of that is people going overboard, falling over and hitting their head, etc, and the fact that far fewer people take ferries than take rail.

[-] WayeeCool@hexbear.net 8 points 10 months ago

They are almost all private operators and lack the close oversight passenger airlines and municipal mass transit are subjected to. Under trained, low wage, poorly maintained, and carrying sometimes in excess of a thousand passengers.

Less people take ferries each year compared to buses, trains, and aircraft but every few years there is a ferry disaster that kills hundreds of people all at once.

[-] The_Walkening@hexbear.net 2 points 10 months ago

Damn - yeah that sounds sketchy as hell.

[-] lntl@lemmy.ml 7 points 10 months ago

maybe a mixture of low ridership and drowning?

[-] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 9 points 10 months ago

Well they certainly would be riding low if passengers start drowning.

[-] invalidusernamelol@hexbear.net 5 points 10 months ago

You get incidents like the MV Sewol once every few years which is like 300+ fatalities over night, then pretty frequent minor sinkings in more calm waters with just a few deaths, and then regular overboards where people just fall in and no one notices.

[-] CrushKillDestroySwag@hexbear.net 14 points 10 months ago

Looks like this accident was caused by a truck too shrug-outta-hecks

[-] PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS@hexbear.net 17 points 10 months ago

My experience was booking a trip months in advance, only to have them completely cancel all routes between me and my destination until further notice with no alternative for transportation