Comment by panick21_
14 days ago
Or you know, crazy idea, just have less roads, use something more efficient less impactful to nature. Can't imagine what that could be.
14 days ago
Or you know, crazy idea, just have less roads, use something more efficient less impactful to nature. Can't imagine what that could be.
It doesn't matter, there are downsides.
In an ideal train world you still end up with railroad tracks everywhere that interstates exist with the same wildlife downsides. Running trains at ground level is an order of magnitude cheaper to build than building it elevated so wildlife can go under. Running underground is another order of magnitude more expensive. The expense directly relates to how much we can build at any one time - we can build a lot more if we choose run on the ground.
In the ideal train world you still end up with roads everywhere because "last mile" freight needs to get places and trains don't work well for it (think your kitchen trash). Passenger trains always rely on the fact that people can walk a short distance to the train, but freight cannot walk. Passenger trains also cannot be blocked by freight loading/unloading which means you need a separate road system. Passenger trains need to run frequent, you might not go anywhere in the next half hour, but someone on your block will and if the trains are not frequent (every 5 minutes or less) cars are a great quality of life improvement: unlike cars passenger trains cannot mix with freight and be good in areas where things are not busy (A bus can mix with freight well in less busy areas, but they still need to be frequent and that is rarely the case again pushing people to cars and thus against what "you can't imagine"). This in turn means we have more places wildlife is blocked.
Airplanes are the only exception, but they don't cover all the needs and so even if we forced everyone to fly for longer trips (at significant climate costs) we still need all the roads in the middle of nowhere for the people (farmers) who live in those ares.
Hate to burst anyone's bubble but trains in its current form aren't solution to mass transit. They help, sure, under certain circumstances, but are very costly to run and in peak you need huge amount of them. 1 disruption and everything stops, you can't just take an exit and go through villages.
Case point Switzerland, the train country of this world. Efficiency, cleanness, reach, small country. Yet its prohibitively expensive here and highways are chock full of commuters just like anywhere else. For weekend trip ie to mountains they (+ post buses where trains don't go) are very restrictive which is understandable, but car becomes a must anyway.
> expensive
Not so much. As a tourist yes, no question.
If you’re a resident, there is a card that costs 160/year (180 the first year) and give you half price on all trains. Also works with any local public transit system (municipal buses, etc) across the country.
Train is quite affordable like that. For example St Gallen to Zurich is 90 minutes by train and costs 16.- with 1/2 fare card. You can even get a super saver (valid on this train only) for 21.20 or 11.20 1/2 fare. That’s for this Monday.
Swiss salaries are some of the highest in the world. The overwhelming majority of trains run on time, don’t strike, and are clean.
It’s cheaper than driving (gas and maintenance) + parking by a long margin.
You can go ski by train there. Haven’t owned a car in 5 years living there.
2 replies →
Cars are even more expensive to run. However nobody counts that cost while they see the cost of a ticket.
> Yet its prohibitively expensive here
If it was 'prohibitively expensive' then why do so many people use and why is usage increasing?
Unless you buy individual tickets all the time its really not that expensive.
And depending on how you organize and finance it you can make it really cheap, see Belgium.
Its a hell of a lot cheaper then driving.
For a whole society, to primarly use trains, instead of primarily using cars is WAY, WAY CHEAPER!
> Case point Switzerland, the train country of this world.
This might be the case but Switzerland still spends decades and decades under investing in trains. The Bahn 2000 project was a huge success, but it was a success driven by minimal investment.
If a country like Switzerland had contentiously invested in high quality rail since WW2, we would be in a completely, competently different situation.
> For weekend trip ie to mountains they (+ post buses where trains don't go) are very restrictive which is understandable, but car becomes a must anyway.
And yet I have lived my whole live without a car and only rarely drive in the car with somebody else.
Yes, only trains as the only thing isn't a solution. That clear to anybody, but you can decently do a hell of a lot. And you can do much, much more then Switzerland is currently doing.
For example, we are 'the train country' but we don't even have a high speed rail line.
That somebody can say 'the train country' with a serious face about Switzerland only shows how utterly under-invested rail was since the 1930 in most countries.
The thing with trains is, you have to build them on elevated sometimes anyway, just because of geography, unless if you maybe live in a super flat pace.
And a train track, is way better for wildlife. Even if you run high frequency, most of the time the track is occupied or empty for a while.
Case and point, we have trains going threw mountains and all across everywhere. And the amount of wildlife being hit is vanishingly small. Animals turn out not to be stupid. Many small animals might even survive if they are on the track.
A single train line, can replace many car lanes.
The most dangerous animals for crashes are (a) human suicide (b) cows.
> In the ideal train world you still end up with roads everywhere because "last mile" freight needs to get places and trains don't work well for it (think your kitchen trash).
This is just lack of imagination. Let me guess you are American?
You can easily have train tracks (ie trams) that connect trash collection points. And people can bring their garbage to those points with a simple cart. Just like people go shopping. At worst what you need minor trash collection points that then get moved to the major ones with tiny electric trucks.
And since the volume of such traffic is low, you can easily run that on something like bike lanes or simply in mixed traffic. And you can mostly do that in the night. This is how it already works for areas that are car-free. Its really not magic.
> Passenger trains also cannot be blocked by freight loading/unloading which means you need a separate road system.
No all you need is separate cargo stations or breakout lines. And that exists, and has existed in the past.
If a rail track is so occupied with passenger trains, then clearly there is enough demand for another line.
Most rail lines are not that occupied and can handle an occasional cargo train, you just don't run crazy large trains like in the US.
And bonus, each new rail line increases capacity far more then equivalent car line.
> but they still need to be frequent and that is rarely the case again pushing people to cars
Your argument does not make sense, bus and trains are the same. You have a 'lane' the lane has a certain capacity. For both you can decide on frequency. And on both you can instead run trucks or cargo trains. If capacity of 1 lane can't handle demand, you need another lane.
And individual car transport on one of those lanes, is by far the least efficient overall solution.
A lot of your points are literally just lack of imagination and lack of investment.
maybe this is why Brin and Allen were so obsessed with airships, not to speculate too much but they sound like they could be an ideal short-run, low-impact, high capacity transit system if done right
> not to speculate too much but they sound like they could be an ideal short-run, low-impact, high capacity transit system if done right
Except they are the exact opposite of all of that. The just flat out suck. But its one of those easy traps to fall into.
The German company Cargolifter lost a nice chunk of money. And they aren't the only ones.
The technology hasn't really changed for a long time. And nobody has yet made it useful.
A few reason, they are INSANELY big for a pretty tiny amount of actual payload. That means infrastructure for them is really damn big. That means they hang in the wind like its nothing, you need massive energy just to stabilize them in one place. They are just generally really hard to control.
They are very expensive to design and build. And once you build it, unlike with a 737, you can't transport 100s of people multiple times a day, nonono these things are slow, and picking up cargo is slow, and picking up people is insanely slow. So you can operate this thing for like a day, and maybe do a few cargo lifts. Not exactly a great business. Ah and btw, you also need to design a quasi unique aircraft with lots of fun failure modes and issues that you get to discover and rediscover. They are the opposite of high capacity. And you better hope the weather is good because your not picking up people if it isn't.
And scaling the operation? Your never gone mass produce these things and each one needs its own massive infrastructure. See what the government paid for in Germany, its now a ski resort: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargolifter-Luftschiffhalle
So have fun building a new gigantic building for each new craft.
So lets just do what we know works and has worked for 200 years, trains and ships.
Me neither. A bus? A train? A bicycle? What do you mean, don’t leave the room for interpretation.