Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   𝚃𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚜 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚎 🚇 (straphanger@urbanists.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Feb-2025 10:05:33 JST 𝚃𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚜 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚎 🚇

   I can't think of a better way of pissing off Trump than for #Canada to go ahead with building the proposed Alto high-speed rail project.

   A multi-billion high-tech megaproject, that would deliver faster trains than the US has, using Canadian steel + aluminum.

   Might even kick off a modern version of the space race.

   • Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     𝚃𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚜 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚎 🚇 (straphanger@urbanists.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Feb-2025 10:05:48 JST 𝚃𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚜 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚎 🚇

     in reply to

     It's about time we stopped building pipelines, highways, and runways, and got back to the railways that really built this nation.

     We're good at trains, and trains—especially the electric variety—are good for the world.

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 23-Feb-2025 20:59:58 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow

     @straphanger @pluralistic Sllllooowww!

     Here's the steel-wheel-on-rail speed record setting run from 1994: 574.8 km/h …

     https://youtu.be/jJfDWtbioEM?si=Z012Tbb1rMcD7AmY

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 23-Feb-2025 21:07:11 JST Charlie Stross

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Infoseepage

     @Infoseepage @straphanger @pluralistic I wish Boris Johnson had gotten his bridge across the Beaufort Dike built as an LGV-spec rail bridge. Then we could have TGVs running from Dublin to Glasgow, on to Edinburgh, then over HS2 south to London and thence to Paris and Berlin via the Channel Tunnel and TGV network.

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 23-Feb-2025 21:37:25 JST Charlie Stross

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Infoseepage

     @Infoseepage @straphanger @pluralistic A besetting problem for efficient passenger rail is that it requires population density along the route—or at least, a lot of demand for travel between end-points. Ireland doesn't have that (except maybe Cork-Dublin-Belfast). The Scottish highland routes are similarly slow. But where you can connect major cities rail can out-compete air travel (on volume/price) and cars (on speed).

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 24-Feb-2025 06:38:53 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Infoseepage
     • LisPi

     @lispi314 @Infoseepage @pluralistic @straphanger Not even that: Ireland's railway network was built and run along colonial lines prior to 1918 (Ireland wasn't seen as part of the British state, but as a dominion, by the folks holding the purse strings). It stagnated after independence then didn't catch up during the Irish economic boom of the 1990s-2010s (apart from Dublin's Luas (tram network) which was commuter transport in a crowded capital city). Belfast being in another country didn't help!

   • Embed this notice
     LisPi (lispi314@udongein.xyz)'s status on Monday, 24-Feb-2025 06:38:55 JST LisPi

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Charlie Stross
     • Infoseepage
     @Infoseepage @pluralistic @straphanger @cstross That isn't an accident.
     
     Defunding rail infrastructure in favor of gas-industry & car-centric options is very intentional.
     
     Sure, areas with less population density make it a bit harder to fund off local taxes & whatnot, but it should still be feasible.