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by username223 3034 days ago
It seems like truck convoys are a less efficient reinvention of trains. I'm still surprised they didn't take off in the States, though, since our rail infrastructure is pathetic. Maybe it only works now because Uber can burn $1B a quarter.
1 comments
gaadd33 3033 days ago
Why do you think our rail infrastructure is pathetic? It's the largest freight rail networks in the world.

It sucks for passengers but that's not relevant to this discussion.

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username223 3033 days ago
You're right -- it's better than I thought, though it's still in the middle of the pack when measured by track per person or track per area:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_tran...

I guess I'm biased by seeing all the abandoned rail, since it's well down from its peak.

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vinay427 3033 days ago
> it's still in the middle of the pack when measured by track per person or track per area

Both of those seem like somewhat irrelevant metrics. Why should a more densely populated country be penalized for having larger clusters of people compared to (based on this data) Canada or Russia? On the other end, why should a country with large swaths of unpopulated land cover it with rail to improve its track per area metric, which densely populated countries seem to do well on?

It may be more useful to consider the efficiency and cost of freight rail, as well as the share of freight transit (per unit of distance, for instance) that is on rail.

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username223 3033 days ago
They're not perfect, but they seem useful to me: roughly how much stuff per mile is on your rails, and how far do you have to travel to reach it? Do you have some cost per mile figures to share?
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secabeen 3033 days ago
Yeah, the US rail system is the best in the world for freight. In other countries, passenger rail has priority, so the freight service suffers a bit. In the US, it's the other way around.
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astrodust 3033 days ago
That's also why Amtrak is such garbage compared to any civilized country.
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saalweachter 3033 days ago
Check out the usage statistics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag...

Most tonnage shipped by rail in the world, with 10x more than the EU.

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