A total of 6,220 miles (10,010 km) of railway line were built as a result of projects authorised between 1844 and 1846—by comparison, the total route mileage of the modern UK railway network is around 11,000 miles (18,000 km).
Wow. Must have been nice having such a solid foundation to expand upon. Meanwhile in the US:
There is no such thing as trains. Now get back in you gas guzzler, sit in traffic for 3 hours each way on each day, consume more gasoline to enrich the corporate overlords, and run over as many kids as you can because you can’t see them in your behemoth.
-The political establishment
Fuck yeah! Damn those environmental pansies! I’ll even hang a ton of flags on the guzzler expressing my obnoxious political-opinion so I can own the libs. That’ll teach 'em.
It’s fair to say the direct comparison between UK and US doesn’t add up. But, Europe as a whole is roughly as big-ish as the United States. They have a really well-developed rail system and they are better because of it.
According to Google (so maybe it’s wrong), the European Union has a total of 124,864 miles as of 2023.
It says the US has a total of 136,729 miles.
So if we’re going purely by length, which admittedly is not the only factor, then the US still edges them out.
I do imagine that many of those miles are in disrepair, but I still think it’s important to remember just how large and spread out the US actually is. Laying down that much track is an enormous undertaking
I do imagine that many of those miles are in disrepair
Actually most of it is in good working order! The FRA regulations require a certain standard of maintaince for trains to be allowed to roll down the track so railroads will either abandon trackage or keep it maintained. Yes some sidings and branch lines will see lighter maintenance but they will still be maintained to a relatively safe standard until they are abandoned and no longer used by the railroad
Making me think of the hemp fuel powered car with a hemp fiber composite body stronger than steel, that got suppressed (or at least, “shelved”). Not to mention other clean fuel car innovations, and so on. But instead, we get the same old two evils false dichotomy bs. We can have individual autonomy and clean efficient transport.
… Reminding myself of that Bakunin quote:
We are convinced that freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice, and that socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality.
Wow. Must have been nice having such a solid foundation to expand upon. Meanwhile in the US:
-The political establishment
-The morons
Public transit in the US is trash, but the country is so much larger than the UK, that we still have like 15x that here.
It’s fair to say the direct comparison between UK and US doesn’t add up. But, Europe as a whole is roughly as big-ish as the United States. They have a really well-developed rail system and they are better because of it.
According to Google (so maybe it’s wrong), the European Union has a total of 124,864 miles as of 2023.
It says the US has a total of 136,729 miles.
So if we’re going purely by length, which admittedly is not the only factor, then the US still edges them out.
I do imagine that many of those miles are in disrepair, but I still think it’s important to remember just how large and spread out the US actually is. Laying down that much track is an enormous undertaking
Actually most of it is in good working order! The FRA regulations require a certain standard of maintaince for trains to be allowed to roll down the track so railroads will either abandon trackage or keep it maintained. Yes some sidings and branch lines will see lighter maintenance but they will still be maintained to a relatively safe standard until they are abandoned and no longer used by the railroad
Making me think of the hemp fuel powered car with a hemp fiber composite body stronger than steel, that got suppressed (or at least, “shelved”). Not to mention other clean fuel car innovations, and so on. But instead, we get the same old two evils false dichotomy bs. We can have individual autonomy and clean efficient transport.
… Reminding myself of that Bakunin quote: