Charlie StrossNov 10

A hypothesis about US infrastructure/politics:

Amtrak continues to exist for the same reason the Democratic Party exists—to make the alternatives (respectively: driving/flying, the Republican Party) look reasonable.

(If American governance was sensible, the feds would have dropped about $1Tn on building out a modern, high speed, electrified, grade-separated network no later than 1980 and would now be in a whose-trains-are-faster-and-more-punctual race with China.)

Show threadGondor
@cstross
There MUST be some kind of "pandemic" at global scale among politicians.😒 #mpd (madpoliticiandesease)
In germany the trainsystem got worse + worse the last decades. Up to something like, a local trainline had a very bad rate of running late very often. So it was decided to - not improve but to give up providing that tranconnection alltogether.
Btw. it's nowadays not uncommon train(connection)s are slowed down because of "traffic jams" (1 track for passengertrains + freighttrains). Wtf!
Nov 10 at 1:50pmWeb
Show threadSzymon Sokół 🇵🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦Nov 10
@grootinside @cstross same in Poland - while Polish railways are now about as punctual as Deutsche Bahn (mostly due to the latter getting worse, not the former getting better), the network dwindled by about 30% of connections during last 30 years - see below (green - new connections, red - deleted connections):
Show threadIanOBNov 10

@blotosmetek @grootinside @cstross

Check out Ireland. None (that's correct, zero) rail links to any of our airports.

Show thread波鉄 (Hatetsu)Nov 11

@blotosmetek @grootinside @cstross This map is… wrong. For one it doesn't actually seem to include any "new connections", the green lines are lines that were closed and later reopened. Like… where's the PKM in Gdańsk? The bypass via Karczemki? (EDIT: Okay, I think I can see the old part there) The airport access lines to Lublin airport, Szymany, Goleniów, anything that's been actually built in the last 30 years? Why is the branch to Zegrze red, it should be green!

At the same time it doesn't seem to line up with anything datewise. Are you sure this map wasn't designed specifically to convince people things are worse than they are?

Show thread波鉄 (Hatetsu)Nov 11

@blotosmetek @grootinside @cstross Hmmm, on second thought, I think I get it now. This map is a few years out of date. Green doesn't mark reopened lines, either. I think it marks (some) lines without regular regional service, usually with just one or two IC pairs, or maybe seasonal service. Red marks lines with no passenger service at all. And it doesn't show any lines built since the end of the 80s iirc. (There's not many of them, pretty much all airport links and tiny connections between existing lines allowing avoiding long breaks for moving the locomotive to the other end of the train at certain junction stations)

Rail *is* improving in Poland - not equally everywhere, but the renaissance is real, lines are getting reopened, trains are more punctual than they used to be, there's more modern rolling stock (emphasis on *more*, it's hardly everywhere and PKP Intercity carriage trains certainly can sometimes feel like they're lagging behind - and other times really lag behind) and ridership is rising