Hacker News Reader

Comment by cramjabsyn | Hacker News Reader

Lacking rail networks in the US must play a role in putting more people (and trucks) on the road and increasing severity of crashes

View on HN

That's funny you say that because the US has one of it not the largest freight networks in the world

It's funny that you mention freight, because that's completely irrelevant for people traveling.

You could not be more wrong. Research the history of of the Class I railroads and they all had prestigious passenger service that became too unprofitable to run thanks to dwindling ridership and the cancelation of the USPS contracts in 1964. Their rolling stock was turned over to Amtrak at its formation in 1971.

Can you explain how this is relevant to modern traffic fatality statistics?

Today's main line rails are mostly in the same places they were back when they hosted passenger service.

Which are now used for freight and instead people mostly move in cars, which are prone to crashing

Meaning that it’s a matter of priorities and we could just have passenger trains again if we really wanted to. Personally I think freedom of movement is such a public good that it’s wrong to require they be run for profit. Warren Buffet can afford a few holes in the freight timetable.

The old passenger lines you reference:

- don't solve intracity travel.

- likely are not optimised for the flow of people today.

- likely are not constructed for the high speeds which make intercity travel attractive via rail.

I'm not sure why historical relevance is being talked about. Rail in the US failed to keep pace and has become largely irrelevant despite appearing that it could stand to benefit even more from modernized passenger rail because of often large distances between popular destinations.

It is pretty irrelevant for this discussion except as a criticism of infrastructure.

I'm pretty sure OP is talking about intra-city light commuter rail, aka public transit infrastructure, not inter-city freight rail.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com