I expect better of the rail network in America. This is a tiny network for the size country we are.
PUT THE TRAINS IN THE BAG
Submitted 3 weeks ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/0f05252d-626a-4dd0-92f3-98368f708e48.jpeg
Comments
obsidianfoxxy7870@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
pseudo@jlai.lu 3 weeks ago
These poor people have such a bad rail network that even their dreams are limited…
ICastFist@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
I felt that one as a Brazilian (govt literally went “fuck trains, cars are the future!” for ~30 years starting in the 1950s)
Cassanderer@thelemmy.club 3 weeks ago
The thing is the rail network was pretty comprehensive at one point. Only a few remain.
st3ph3n@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
It still is, if you’re a piece of rail freight.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
it takes me 24 hours to go by train the same distance it takes me to fly 1.5 hours. and the cost is the same. there are some problems.
recklessengagement@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This has more to do with how commuter trains are forced to give priority to freight trains, causing delays, than actual travel times
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
It’s not that extreme, but even if we assume a 200 mph HSR train:
- It would still take 12 hours to drive the 2500 miles from Los Angeles (California) to Jacksonville (Florida)
- It would still take 6 hours to drive the 1200 miles from Jacksonville (Florida) to Boston (Massachusetts)
Admittedly, there’s a point to be made that hardly anyone would drive from Florida straight to Massachusetts or the other way around, but the distance is still impressive.
Airplanes who fly at 600 mph reduce that travel time to 1/3rd.
plyth@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
If you go 300km/h by train and 900km/h by plane then the numbers don’t add up.
maxxadrenaline@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
stray@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
Thank you. I was kind of offended with the other one for implying I would neglect a huge region.
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Nah, Idaho can get fucked.
StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I was gonna say what about the inner west coast
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
They know what they did
tetris11@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
why do all tracks lead to Florida?
LolaCat@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Its the other way around, there needs to be as many ways to get out of Florida as possible.
humanspiral@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
One reason for this is hurricanes are more frequent, and sometimes the notice level is too short to have safe evacuation from Miami through highway systems. There has been anger over deaths from evacuation, when a storm warning did not destroy as many homes as was “hoped”/feared.
jaybone@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
I think because it has large populations on both coasts?
maxxadrenaline@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Quote from ‘The People Under The Stairs’ ; “Sometimes the only way out is the way in.”
rumba@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
A bunch of individual reasons.
Chock Full-0-Sea ports
Nasa historically moved a lot of big stuff over rail.
Florida has a shit ton of Agriculture but a lack of raw materials
Tourism
It’s flat as hell
TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
Chock Full-0-Sea ports
Is really the big reason. Less and less portage is going through the traditional East Coast hubs of NY and NJ, mostly going to places like Louisiana , Texas, and Florida instead.
Historically Florida has always been pretty big on trains as well. In fact you used to be able to take a train from Florida to Cuba…kinda. You could take a train across the overseas rail line to Key West where they would ferry the whole train car over to Cuba.
We used to be an actual country that did stuff, and that’s because we weren’t afraid to do cool stuff with trains.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Flattest state in the union, which I learned not too long ago. As to raw materials? We don’t even have rocks down here. I can only think of one place I’ve seen natural rock, and I’m all over the woods and swamps.
RoabeArt@hexbear.net 3 weeks ago
Florida is also densely populated compared to other similarly sized states, around 135 people per km² (US average is about 37/km²)
logicbomb@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The train tracks are extra support to keep Florida from floating away.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
wont stop it from going under water though.
The_Sasswagon@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
Lots of people in a pretty small area in relatively dense cities that currently drive or fly between the cities (technically called strong city pairings). There’s also a pretty enormous tourism industry in Florida that captures much of the Midwestern US/anyone not going to California or Hawaii for their beach or disney vacation. Florida is also flat which makes for very cheap high speed rail. Note how the map goes out of its way to avoid the mountains out West.
That being said, I’m not sure this map is one of the ones made with serious city pairing calculations. I’m skeptical that Quincy, IL has a really strong draw for high speed rail, for example, and that long gap between Portland and Sacramento/San Francisco, while beautiful and filled with cool places, is way too sparsely populated to justify 6hrs on high speed rail. I think it’s a sort of meme map that’s been going around for years, though I wish it were real.
Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Thats a weird way to spell Chicago? 3 out of 8 tracks is far from all of them
tetris11@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Look how many tracks are aligned for consecutive stops in the state though
jaybone@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
It’s better than being stuck in Cheyenne Wyoming.
bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 3 weeks ago
The tracks in Ticket to Ride do something similar. idk the root cause though
DarkAri@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Ports to South America, and ports in New york to Europe.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Third most populous state for one.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I assume the gray gaps are due to red states refusing to get on the Tylenol/Autism Train, but I can’t believe, if the Autist Party were in power, they wouldn’t insist on connecting ALL the dots.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s kind of weird too because logistically the northern boarder is the easiest place to expand rails: big flat great planes region, with both of the two largest rivers for ferrying in supplies, followed by a bypass around the bulk of the rocky mountains into Oregon or Washington State.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s about need. Like yeah, Chicago through the Dakotas is easy as pie, but the demand would be to seattle and that crosses two mountain ranges and the only stops between Minnesota and Seattle with much demand there would be at national parks.
Like yeah it would be awesome as hell and the American version of the CCP would absofuckinglutely have a high speed rail to Yellowstone and the badlands since they’re on the way. But Yellowstone is past the start of the mountains and you need to connect all the way to seattle for it to be more than a vanity project.
The important lines are the NY-Chicago (land is dirt cheap for lots of it, mountains are small, and population is dense with several makor cities you can hit) and the west coast line (basically actually do California high speed rail, then extend it from San Diego to just outside British Columbia
OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yeah this is clearly the work of Big Acetylsalicylic Acid
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
You-know-who oughta be grateful he only had to stumble through pronouncing acetaminophen.
muffedtrims@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I would think that Kansas City would be a bigger hub since it already has a lot of rail through there and is more central in the country.
deceiver@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
for freight, not passenger rail, which is what high-speed rail is primarily designed for
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
But dood. Put a USPS fishbowl-connected car on the end with a sorter working inside and prepping for each stop, and watch FedEx sweat.
Cassanderer@thelemmy.club 3 weeks ago
Freight rail is a lot less than it should be as well.
It is also owned by Private Industry without clear rules on what they can charge in that more than it should be.
The rails were only made with eminent domain, Private Industry should not be able to screw people on it, or give preference to large companies over people and small ones.
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
As would I. There is an existing line from Kansas City to Tulsa to OKC that has been talked about being opened for passengers for a couple decades.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
but its not high speed rail though.
Ultraviolet@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The most efficient would be 3 major east/west lines, NYC to Seattle, DC to San Francisco, and Atlanta to LA, connected by a series of north/south lines to form a grid.
Soup@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You need to hit major centres to be efficient. You’re talking about the most efficient per station but most efficient per passenger is going to look different. This image doesn’t see too bad and can still have branching lines.
qualia@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yeah just get a slime mold to design it for us.
Ultraviolet@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The biggest concern with that setup is how inefficient it is to reach the Pacific Northwest region. A line that goes straight to either Seattle or Portland from the Northeast simplifies things a lot.
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
Umm yeah…now we are autisming! Though I’m not autistic as a disclaimer.
runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
My dumb ass thought this was a ticket to ride map for a minute.
judgyweevil@feddit.it 3 weeks ago
No, there are more routes in ticket to ride
DogWater@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Tryna get that LA to NY route
dickalan@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I don’t get it
tatterdemalion@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Trains are a common special interest of people with autism.
Fredselfish@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Then I must be autistic then, because I love trains and dream of having high speed rail.
Awkwardparticle@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
I know two neurodivergent people that love trains, one is into models and the other trainspotting. They are correct too, trains are awesome.
dickalan@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yes, but how does that pertain to this picture, I would need like a before and after photo to know any context for this image, thank you for sharing, though I appreciate the response response
TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
It’s something that happened in the meme-o-sphere and I too am left out
Etterra@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
Train Simulator players: heavy breathing
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
That’s what they said
y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
The trains are not always trains.
jaybone@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
How can our eyes be real?
OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
What a beautiful sight.
It’s too bad Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood is such a flimsy underrepresentation of the average American oil tycoon
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
I’m no expert on US geography, but isn’t it like really dumb to put 3 train lines through desert? (the red, yellow and grey lines).
i can understand the coastlines (east and west) and maybe one in the south (the yellow line). what i basically don’t get is the rest.
vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And once again Phoenix to Las Vegas is ignored.
grumpo_potamus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
While we’re dreaming, can we connect SLC to Boise and Portland?
TheBat@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Just how much Tylenol is consumed in Japan?
Image
piccolo@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
China must be chugging Tylenol
418_im_a_teapot@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
New conspiracy theory: Tylenol actually does cause autism. But China figured out that autism is the key to a better society and they are pushing RFK to ban it so that we remain self-destructive neurotypicals.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Wait a minute, Korea got united between 2008 and 2024?
/joke
stray@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
Based on the latest Silent Hill, a lot.
emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Why is there no connection between Niigata and Onezawa?
TheBat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Mountains, I assume.
Image
So if you must travel between these two towns you’d need to go via Fukushima.