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trains rule (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

That's fair. To my defense, this discussion would look different if I didn't have to reply 50 times that actually no, you can't open windows in trains and no, you can't just get out. It's easy to lose track of all the replies when most of them are nonsense from people that never saw a modern train. I don't think I "got pissy" about your comments regarding cars. They sounded reasonable, just off-topic.

Rewinding to the very beginning, what here doesn't make sense? Many train tracks are fenced and not close to any infrastructure. It can be very difficult to move people to a bus because of it. It's pretty much impossible to put people on another train (because trains can't overtake other trains). You pretty much have to fix the issue before the train can leave which can take many hours. With a car/bus you're right next to the road, you can be easily towed or replacement bus can be sent. At least that's the reality where I live.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (1 child)

    Mostly I disagreed with the comparative ease you implied for mechanical troubles with cars. I've never had or heard of a tow truck getting there that fast outside of things like highway blocking accidents. Holding up the time of repairs and alternative transportation as specific downsides of trains also felt off, as did the remoteness.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/amtrak-passengers-stuck-for-hours-on-stranded-train-near-battle-creek/

    This is a story more like what I imagine with a train breakdown. The "middle of nowhere" was a half mile from a road, ten from a city and near enough to a city that they got busses in a few hours. It's by no means nice but it's not quite "stuck in a mountain pass for the winter".
    In my experience cars often go to places far more inaccessible, so it seems odd to single out trains.

    To me the biggest difficulty would be the slowed information flow. When my car breaks down I know exactly how much I can do to repair it before I call or start walking. I have no idea where the mechanical assessment of the train is so I don't know when to bail.

    Edit:

    Oh, right: they put fences around the train tracks? They don't do that here that I've seen outside of junctions. Much bigger fences around the highways.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Oh, right: they put fences around the train tracks? They don’t do that here that I’ve seen outside of junctions. Much bigger fences around the highways.

    Where is here? In Spain high speed railway is fenced:

    We're talking barbed wire. But you're right, in different places the trains and tracks are different so breakdowns are handled in another way. Where I live railway very often looks like this:

    or this:

    You're not walking people out of there. I don't know people who remember car breakdown as a traumatic experience. I do know people who had very unpleasant experiences in trains. That's all. Trains are great, we should be investing in trains and promoting them but there are limits to what trains can do.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Heh, "here" is the US. We built roads next to nearly all of the train tracks and we don't have high speed rail.

    A pretty normal arrangement:

    This is what freeways look like in a lot of cities:

    Either that, or elevated. When you get to the suburbs they tend to start putting up sound barriers:

    You can also just be on a road so remote that it takes forever for someone to even notice you.

    We have a lot of people die every year trying to walk off the highways from getting hit and, in the winter particularly, there's messaging about not leaving your car because of the danger.

    As a result of all that, this is the most light-hearted way of describing how the comment landed:

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