American Railroads: - Learn EVERYTHING About Them!

[@Cptn.Viridian]

The main issues with railroads in America today is lack of serious or substantial government support, combined with the government heavily supporting rails 2 biggest rivals, the Interstate system and the American Air industry. This lack of support makes it almost impossible to create or invest in creating a profitable competitive passenger rail system. Someone who pays to maintain tracks and dozens of complex locomotives can't compete with the person with a bus who can go anywhere in the US for just the price of gas. A similar story goes for freight railroads. The US used to have the most comprehensive freight railroad system, allowing trains and goods to roll right up to the industry building where the goods are created. But of course when you compete with trucks, who have a right of way for free to any business in the US, and can promise faster and fringer routes, trains simply can't compete. In addition, because of the lack of investment, rail infrastructure has been caught in a downward spiral for a while. Electrification is dead in the water for every railroad in the US. Lines which were or could be double tracked have been stripped down to a single track, and there are almost no routes that have eliminated grade crossings. To top it all off, building or improving any infrastructure is slowly becoming harder and harder, as red-tape, bureaucracy, and lack of public and political all mount to block any form of rail expansion. So to summarize how this happened, America basically gave the finger to it's largest and most important industry to basically subsidize a service that the railroads couldn't compete with. This slowly lead to a decline in customers, which lead railroads to decrease their service, which slowly became a downward spiral to today where the only viable rail solutions is long distance freight and the occasional probably not profitable passenger service.

[@spencergraham-thille9896]

How does the government support the air industry?

[@kdwaynec]

@@spencergraham-thille9896 Copy and paste your question into your Google search bar for several pages of and links to answers.

[@Cptn.Viridian]

@@spencergraham-thille9896 While the US government doesn't subsidize airports (anymore), they do heavily subsidize air routes to remote or low volume destinations.

[@spencergraham-thille9896]

@@Cptn.Viridian Gotcha. That's a small slice of the air industry pie, no?

[@Cptn.Viridian]

@@spencergraham-thille9896 To a degree, yes, but that is also an area a rail service could excel at. Having those small towns simply on the lines leading to larger cities is more efficient for the railroad company and more effective for travelers compared to flying. If that same money that was going to fly empty planes to underused airports went to trains instead, you would simultaneously provide better service to those effected, whilst those funds would better benefit the rail system as a whole.

[@EnjoyFirefighting]

Before I watch the video I'd also ask the question: "American Railroads: not as good as they think they are?" The truth is usually somewhere in between I guess. 1) Good in freight, not good in passenger service. 2) Long trains carrying a lot of freight per train, but at a slow speed. 3) Most trains still running on diesel. 4) Thousands of railroad crossings in both urban and rural areas (instead of bridges and underpasses). 5) Impressive looking: definetly, no doubt! 6) passenger train service often doomed due to lack of local public transit covering the door-to-station and station-to-destination distance and schedules which might not be attractive for many people How would you continue the list? Edit: after watching the video: thank you for the very informative video you made!

[@rdgk1se3019]

Freight railroads in the USA are private business's and do not get public subsidies from the government like highways and airports.

[@EnjoyFirefighting]

@@rdgk1se3019 yeah I know that ... so? There are many private RR freight companies in other countries as well

[@Joesolo13]

@@EnjoyFirefighting correct but I think the point is they've got an uphill battle to compete against other modes which are arguably unfairly advantaged by direct and indirect subsidies. A RR is taxed on the track it owns and maintains(this is part of why double tracking have been removed in some places, as it's taxed on length) Trucking companies use government built and maintained roads. The gas taxes they pay don't nearly cover the wear they put on them, and they don't need to put up the capital building them in the first place.

[@michlo3393]

@@EnjoyFirefighting Foreigners like you lack real intimate knowledge of US rail, American politics, and the way those two work (or don't work) together. Constantly saying that "other countries have private RR too" still almost ENTIRELY misses the point. The actual issues are far more complex than someone like you saying the same bullshit like: "China is a big country and they have HSR" or "Russia can electrify their system"; actually EXPLAIN to us the why and how in those situations instead of constantly berating us as if you know better. Maybe China can build HSR simply because they work under a different Economic, Legal and Political system that allows them to throw up a vanity railroad regardless of how viable it actually is? And Maybe the reasons American RR's don't electrify are more complex than people like you care to acknowledge? Truthfully, the REAL advantage of European Rail is its coverage and frequency. Those two far outweigh the sheer speed of European HSR (which only makes up a small portion of their overall network in the first place). But as usual, HSR is touted as this amazing "wonder drug" that cures all. How about you EDUCATE YOURSELF on the actual reality of our situation instead of giving us the same bullshit lecture over and over again. Speaking of European scum, the world stands YET AGAIN at risk of global conflict because the WORTHLESS nations of Europe ONCE AGAIN refuse to police their own backyard. But yeah, go on about how "shitty" American RR's are.

[@EnjoyFirefighting]

@@michlo3393 if you think the US is the only country with kind of messy circumstances of companies and politics then you're wrong. Although different issues, other countries have those issues as well, and they have them a lot. Let it be Norway, Germany, whatever ... I guess one could insert pretty much any country No, HSR is actually a less important part of our rail network. Yes it does play an significant role in international and inter city travel, but most people will take the trains on a more regional level in most areas, and that's what most trains serve at moderate speeds of south of 200 kph or 124 mph Funny you bring up such an off-topic political aspect up here, but as you did already: not sure if you are aware of how insecure the balance is between "a war between two countries" and a "WW3" actually is. Ukraine is attacked by Russia, most countries put sanctions up against Russia, from banking systems to companies shutting down their businesses. Putin says that such sanctions are equal to a declaration of war against him. Countries like Germany are in an even more difficult position as they depend on gas from Russia. Gas prices went up in the past few weeks to more than $11 per gallon, with prices expected to rise even more. He also announced that if western Europe will interfere in the war in Ukraine he will start an attack on those countries as well ... then also US military bases and soldiers will be affected ... see where this goes? The topic of the video definetly is not about war politics, is it? It's about RR ... that's why focus onto them and not onto the many other issues each country on either side of the pond has

[@KanishQQuotes]

The moment movies and TV shows start showcasing trains in USA Suddenly they'll become "great again"

[@dwc1964]

The fact that passenger trains have to use rail owned by freight companies is a big part of why it's so unreliable. The one time I tried to take the train for my annual vacation from the SF Bay Area to the Pacific Northwest, I was _6 hours behind schedule_ because of being halted in the middle of nowhere several times waiting for a freight train to clear the track ahead of us. After that, I went back to the motorcycle.

[@jackchen7003]

Yes, thank you for making this video. People always make American risk to be bad. But we have the most efficient freight network and the largest railroad system in the entire world connecting to Canada and even Mexico. Although passenger service isn’t reliable (with the exception of some commuter railroad and the Northeast corridor) we really don’t have it that bad

[@qjtvaddict]

Passenger service is downright useless

[@jackchen7003]

@@qjtvaddict not in other countries. Trains are very useful

[@justwolfex]

@@jackchen7003 I'm pretty sure they were talking about in the US.

[@Yassified3425]

Sure, but one must not forget that ALOT of cargo in Europe is transported by river boats that can cross the continent cheaply over hundreds of rivers.

[@Cal90208]

@@qjtvaddict Definitely not true, there are several areas where there are passenger trains and rapid transit that are useful.

[@mix3k818]

It feels off seeing so much rail be non-electrified

[@jackchen7003]

Well, that’s America for you

[@mikeynth7919]

Think of the distances involved. Even east of the Mississippi River there are vest areas that are sparsely populated. To electrify those tracks would be very costly. And then there is the weather to consider. Heavy snowstorms and tornados are common in the USA and could take out those power lines in very remote places that could be inaccessible for days. No power to the railway, that line is stopped, and those train crews affected could be in a lot of trouble. Diesel-electric locomotives provide much more flexibility and reliability to the lines.

[@poofygoof]

@@mikeynth7919 Milwaukee Road has entered the chat...

[@Ry_TSG]

@@mikeynth7919 The trans Siberian railroad, stretching across the whole of Russia, is all electric. America has no excuse

[@souvikrc4499]

@@Ry_TSG And as @poofygoof said, we used to have the electrified Milwaukee Road. We used to be the leaders, and now we are one of the worst.

[@kiefershanks4172]

Great video. I would love to see you do this kind of analysis for Canadian railroads and passenger services like VIA and GO. GO might even make for a good video due to the scale it is projected to grow over the next decades. There's lots to talk about for sure...

[@RailwaysExplained]

And you will see it for sure 😁

[@lemonade4181]

I’m very excited for GO expansion. Deutsche Bahn is involved which really reaffirms the scale of the project. It has technically already started but the big parts like electrification, new rolling stock and better headways are part of the official package.

[@AlexCab_49]

Amtrak California gets more ridership than the other state supported routes.

[@chickenboymiller3928]

Would be interesting to see video on why freight rail is lackluster in Europe.

[@jackchen7003]

That’s because y’all have better passenger rail. It’s the opposite here...

[@joseanl]

@@jackchen7003 also Europe has more uneven terrain and needs a lot of tunnels and bridges. That doesn't permit freight trains to be as massive, and efficient, as US trains. With that said, probably this year we will see some change in that. Even if our freight trains are smaller than the US's, they are still more efficient than trucks and with gas prices going up, well...

[@hannibal398]

Europe has a lot of deep rivers which makes water navigation feasible for most areas, which is cheaper than rail per ton mile as there is no track to maintain.

[@romanrat5613]

@@hannibal398 Even still, the US moves more domestic freight by waterways. We have the Mississippi, Great Lakes, and the atlantic inland waterway. In the video you see 11% in US vs. around 7% in Europe

[@Unmannedperson]

11:37: The chart of state supported routes with ridership over 500,000 in 2019 is missing the top 2 (and #5) state supported routes by ridership: Pacific Surfliner (2,776,654 passengers), Capitol Corridor (1,777,136), and San Joaquins (1,071,190). The Pacific Surfliner is actually the third busiest Amtrak route of all creeds, only surpassed by the Northeast Regional and Acela services.

[@chrishtheenby]

Yah I'm confused how none of California's routes got mentioned when they're near the top of Amtrak's published charts

[@doge.a.cat2002]

Could you talk about Latin American railroads please? Like Argentina's maybe? Or Brazil's planned passenger rail revival?

[@HB-C_U_L8R]

One of the reasons passenger rail got left behind is that in the 1930's the airplane manufacturers went the to the railroads and tried to get them to expand into air travel to complement the rail service, but the railroads said they were train companies not transportation companies.

[@herlescraft]

I do wonder if any environmental offset made by carrying cargo by train is counteracted by the sheer amount of private vehicles carrying people inside and between cities.

[@mariusdufour9186]

It gets worse when you consider that trains in Western Europe, Japan, and even Russia are mostly electrified while the overwhelming majority of US trains are pulled by aging Diesel locomotives. Also americans drive larger, more polluting cars on average. If the US was serious about reducing carbon emissions, they would put in place a rolling railway electrification programme and decree that all new railway lines with more than 10 trains per day have to be electrified from the start. (A weaker version of this would be to mandate that all new rail lines have to be designed with clearance for overhead electrification in mind.) All of this in parallel with the development of a competitive network of medium and high speed electrified rail network dedicated to passenger trains.

[@sciencecw]

Passenger rail cannot offset the environmental benefits freight brings. We are talking about very heavy materials in freight trains that are 10x as long as passenger trains.

[@mariusdufour9186]

@@sciencecw Sure, if you compare it to the road-based alternatives putting freight on trains has more benefit than putting passengers on trains. However, once you start taking short passenger flights out of the air with high speed rail, it's a different ball game. (see reduction in number of flights in areas with good high speed rail connections.)

[@archstanton5973]

@@mariusdufour9186 : "the overwhelming majority of US trains are pulled by aging Diesel locomotives." *Obviously you know NOTHING about the murcan railroad system: trains in murca are 1000% pulled by diesel locomotives.*

[@jd0192]

@@mariusdufour9186 I take it you didn’t watch the video… 0.5% of greenhouse gases in America are contributed by diesel freight rail. That’s what you’re complaining about lol. And obviously, you don’t know what you’re talking about, since most class 1 RRs are running locos that are less than 20 years old.

[@kevmeister6466]

to be fair, the U.S. has the best passenger rail service in North America

[@jacorp7476]

Lol, such a low standard though. Literally one out of two systems other than VIA Rail since Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean largely don't even have passenger trains at all. Unless you count Cuba maybe...

[@jenevievecrouch1145]

Where is the truth cause I don't see it.Freight trains are better in the US than passenger.

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

There’s a demand for reliable/HSR rail in the US. Hopefully the private industry could show it, and hopefully the government does more for rail.

[@PGHammer21A]

That demand is up against an entrenched NIMBY Brigade in the US - that is against ANY infrastructure improvements - AMTRAK is merely another victim.

[@archstanton5973]

"There’s a demand for reliable/HSR rail in the US" *NO THERE ISN'T.* "Hopefully the private industry could show it" *Obviously you know NOTHING about the railroad indsutry in the USofA. The 6.5 Big Rail corporations LOATHE passenger trains AS IT "blocks" AND "disrupts" THE MOVEMENT OF THEIR FREIGHT TRAINS AND WOULD BE HAPPY IF PASSENGER TRAINS DISAPPEARED FROM THEIR TRACKS.*

[@MarioYoshi4723]

@@PGHammer21A Republicans and NIMBY’s will cry and throw a temper tantrum over anything involving two parallel rails but will be perfectly okay with a 6 lane freeway being built in the exact same right of way

[@spectex304]

Murica rail is already good enough... But those pvt are scums

[@BattleshipOrion]

No demand for HSR. Just trains. The HSR is a dream for those who live in concrete jungles.

[@michlo3393]

A part of the problem is annoying foreigners who act like speed is the only thing that makes a Railroad work while ignoring like 99.9% of everything else that goes into it.

[@sharkheadism]

Yep

[@AshmewStudios]

Public transit is definitely usable in basically all sizable US cities but usable doesn’t always mean good. Public transit in LA is useable and fairly decent. But LA is still a very car centric city although I have high hopes for Metro.

[@Cal90208]

We have a LOT of area to cover, literally. We are far from having a system that can make it so the city is livable without cars. Maybe by 2060 it will be different 😅

[@AshmewStudios]

@@Cal90208 Yeah, that’s why I said *useable.* Metro (including busses) serves most places in LA. However, it’s usually slower than driving.

[@Rebel9668]

The closest passenger rail to me is a little over 120 miles away in Indianapolis, IN. It used to be a little over 30 miles from me before Amtrak discontinued the Kentucky Cardinal. With CSX abandoning the one freight line in our County a few years ago the closest active railroad to me is a little over 20 miles east on the L&I. If we had passenger service here I'd utilize it but as far away as it is now I'm better off driving anywhere I need to go.

[@MrStark-up6fi]

You should discuss about rail freight transport in Europe, interesting topic

[@gdrriley420]

11:35 Your data seems to have missed all the Amtrak California routes. Surfliner is 3rd, Capital corridor is 4th with San Joaquin is 7th

[@TohaBgood2]

Yeah, I noticed that too. I think he used some kind of an exotic classification for "state-supported routes", but I'm not sure which one. The Surfliner, Cap Corr, and the San Joaquins are indeed 3rd, 4th, and 7th. Maybe even higher after the pandemic because they were growing pretty well before 2020!

[@greyfox78569]

As some that work at an Airport. We desperately need a new passenger rail system to take the load off the air system or we will face a massive breakdown. Which if you flown post Covid you are witnessing it happen now.

[@SpotterCrazyperson]

They need a real high speed line though, like Europe and Asia

[@spencergraham-thille9896]

Where?

[@spencergraham-thille9896]

I'll answer my own question, since I was being a bit facetious. I could see HSR in the NEC. Beyond that, I think that it applies on a case by case basis.

[@BattleshipOrion]

Where though? Name the best ideal routes. Chicago-Albany-NYC, sure, Chicago-Milwaukee sure, Fort Collins, Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, sure. It wont work everywhere, and would have to be either battery, diesel, or dare I say it hydrogen powered.

[@avplayz1711]

I take the south shore line to Chicago regularly its comfortable and very quiet.

[@spadesofpaintstudios1719]

The American railroad is an interesting topic, a lot of its issues stem from the 50s and 60s. When airlines became more popular they took the rail companies money and put it into airports and everything so the rails took a huge hit passenger wise and even freight wise. Trains themselves Also weren’t maintained the best as steam engines where built to last but when they started showing issues a lot of it we’d due to poor maintenance. With the lesser money revenue in the industry that also meant it was hard to maintain them along with Diesel engines which is still an issue today. Amtrak is the only real passenger system we have today minus commuter rail but it’s safe to say a major rework is needed for the system to really thrive again.

[@qjtvaddict]

Amtrak is just land cruises for foamers

[@danielcarroll3358]

@@qjtvaddict A majority of the people riding long distance trains aren't going between the endpoints. This is why Republicans in Congress can call Amtrak wasteful but won't vote against it. Lots of red America relies on it. You can't fly to lots of small towns, bus service isn't what it used to be and a good portion of our population is either too young, too old or too incapable to drive hundreds of miles.

[@jirky015]

@@qjtvaddict LOL. Bro, these people here don't want to hear that but its true - Amtrak is a novelty for train enthusiasts and people who aren't in a rush to get anywhere.

[@qjtvaddict]

@Thomas Cooper I mean trains outside the northeast!!!!! Prove me wrong that is the only corridor with proper service now name any corridor outside NEC with decent service? Yeah none FYI the USA is more than the northeast

[@qjtvaddict]

@@danielcarroll3358 that’s the problem you have just one train instead of many trains at different sections to serve people better your trains are not even on time most of the time

[@DouglasLippi]

The way things are going for new construction, this video will still be accurate in 20 years.

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

the U.S. has turned its back on the railways - all buildings but railway buildings face away from them and have fenses (often solid) and most have wildlife strips (often thick trees) to not see them!!

[@belgianfsgamer]

Great video! As a Belgian I’d love to see you do a video about the Belgian railway’s I’m not sure if there is a lot to talk about but it would be interesting

[@RailwaysExplained]

Noted!

[@Narthanael]

Really sad to see how low ridership numbers are. NYC has 64 Tracks but only 11 Million Passengers. Frankfurt has 29 tracks and 180 million passengers a year

[@romanrat5613]

Hmmm... I think your numbers are excluding certain extremely important services. The regional railroads. Long-Island-Rail-Road alone had a ridership of 114 million pre-pandemic. Metro-North (upstate NY) had around 90 million. NJ transit as well about 90 million. In total you get 294 million. Of course, not all trips are going to NYC, but a lot are. You can add on intercity trips and you get a hell of a lot more than 11 million. I would guess that he got 11 million from amtrak... or the NE corridor alone. Also, the track number you stated is for Grand Central Terminal

[@jamesherrick3751]

What kind of issues are they seeing base on supply chain, fuel, etc. What are significant gov policy changes, new projects, military transport , etc

[@jsea1967]

I really think that your choice to not include commuter/regional services detracts a lot from the video, as it is the most crucial form of passenger rail in America, and is widespread and very diverse in operations, with numerous lines being electrified and/or having high frequency service.

[@jsea1967]

@Thomas Cooper Definitely. I ran the math and commuter rail systems make up around 96% of all passenger rail ridership in the US and Canada. The view of American rail systems that many foreign channels like this one share leaves out a massive amount of information, and what is said in the video is not enough, not to mention many of the statistics had data missing. Definitely pretty disappointing to see

[@jenevievecrouch1145]

Our freight trains are great but amtrak is not so great except on some parts of the country and big cities like Chicago or New york at least have a subway or some form of train service, not to mention other major cities too. Of course there are some states taking an initiative to fund and create passenger trains.

[@DouglasLippi]

Too many commuter lines. The video would be 10 hours long.

[@fermatachambersoloists]

@@DouglasLippi yeah, no.... you could do it in 4 minutes.

[@DouglasLippi]

@@fermatachambersoloists lol sure but it would be woefully incomplete. I have a 1 hour video on the old San Francisco Key system alone...

[@Notthecobracommander]

Would like to see a video about the difference City metro rail/ light rail/ comuter rail lines. Could do a video comparing the 10 largest metro rail systems in the USA.

[@josenietoalvarez2408]

Excellent! Thanks for the information, very complete.

[@davidecova4093]

Gorgeous video! Congrats. I'd surely love to see you trying to explain that disaster of the Italian rail system🤣

[@SynchroScore]

4:50 Anybody else notice that those cars are all driving on the wrong side of the road?

[@JKanimations7718]

American PASSENGER rail is really bad.... except the NE and Brightline

[@rdgk1se3019]

CP and KCS are in the process of merging.

[@acegarr22]

Well, I never experienced having no trains where I live cause the nearest station near me is 3 blocks away with 30 min headways, and during rush hour every 10 minutes

[@danielcarroll3358]

A large percentage of Americans have never been on a train.

[@maestromecanico597]

A worthy effort that's mostly correct. One point: There is no "Brightline East." For now there is Brightline Florida and Brightline West. Hopefully there will be some more Brightlines as time goes on.

[@TohaBgood2]

It doesn't look like their other planned routes are going to get the same level of subsidies like they are getting in Florida. Unfortunately, the reason why Brightline is so successful at extracting subsidies in Florida is all due to the longtime political connections of their founder. Since he has no such clout outside of his home state it's unlikely that he'll be able to repeat the hat trick of subsidies he got in Florida elsewhere. Good luck to them! But don't hold your breath either.

[@watchthe1369]

Properlymade diesel is not as damaging as most greens would have you believe. An increasing amount of diesel is also biodiesel from waste vegetable oils which does not have near the sulphur and particulates that the petroleum sourced stuff does.

[@filipbujaroski9221]

Thank you for this amazing work, as always!

[@RailwaysExplained]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@johnarnehansen9574]

Why don't they use smaller steam and-gas turbines for electrification?

[@IronHorsefan1869]

You should do a video on Amtrak's new Siemens locomotives

[@jermainetrainallen6416]

Thanks for the great video explaining American railways. It'll be interesting to see if/how an American high speed rail system develops over time

[@RailwaysExplained]

Check this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYPWepKilJmsZ6M

[@jermainetrainallen6416]

@@RailwaysExplained I think I've already watched that one. It was another well made video. To answer the question, I don't think the Acela Express qualifies as high speed rail as its average speed is so low. The route needs a big upgrade and perhaps sections of new line if it wants to qualify as high speed rail in my opinion.

[@IndustrialParrot2816]

can you cover south africa's transnet and PRASA

[@sterlingodeaghaidh5086]

When my British friends asked me if the rail travel really sucked here in the U.S I literally said no. Compared to Europe and Asia our passenger capacity is sub par at best, but that’s because we are the literal size of Europe and more spread out. We aren’t gonna be as extensive as they are ever! But to this day, I will gladly take a couple extra days a bit more money and take a sleeper to the east or west coast than fly, the service while not modern isn’t bad but the experience is worth more than the trip. Sure if you have to be in DC TOMORROW then yes fly, but if your on vacation or visiting family then yes do the train.

[@jenevievecrouch1145]

I rather not.This a car-centric country with decent passenger rail in some parts of the country.I highly doubt it be better than other countries.

[@sterlingodeaghaidh5086]

Its not better, but its on-par. If I were to say, travel to D.C or LA (idk why I would) id rather take trains as I hate flying. If its not serviced by a trail transit or its close enough ill drive but I get worn out too easily so its not something I prefer to do. Plus with gas prices the way they are public transit is more and more appealing.

[@ce1834]

no-one/very few are advocating for cross continent/DC to NY connections by rail, which is a pretty convenient excuse, where flying makes a lot more sense anyway, but the regional rail infrastructure and investment which make a lot of sense e.g. dedicated NE corridor HS rail, in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest etc. are simply non-existent in America

[@sterlingodeaghaidh5086]

@@ce1834 I would rather take a train or drive than fly, its arduous, drawn out, overrated, and inconvienant. But that is my opinion so.

[@kaseycaseyiel]

The issue that i saw on many many railways in america is lack if electrification

[@dozergames2395]

While electrification would be nice more track and more branch lines Is probably a better us of our money

[@rezaalan3991]

Great video, next how about Railway nations in China or the largest country by area in the world, because they have extensive railway line.

[@larryjanson4011]

you failed to say, that most suppliers and buyers do not have rail access. nor do any manf that ship less than 10 trucks a day need the rail services. and when the goods must be there within one week rail fails again. only the adaptable of trucks works for this. where i work we get 5-7 trucks a day just for the supply of frozen frys. no way can rail supply this to our door. as one 50 ft car could do most of this job. we have no rail access. inter model would take a couple more days in time.our building is a truck dock. no place for a rail siding. then "somebody" would have to buy couple miles of ag land to get to our yard. at least one grade crossing. a good ten+ miles from the yard.... just for one boxcar a day. and some say our taxes should support those rich company's. sure i like trains. but as it is now my taxes are way to high, then all the graft, corruption and greed. then some just stealing part of said TAX moneys.

[@josenietoalvarez2408]

Excelente ! Gracias por las informaciones , muy completas .

[@mathieumaticien]

Every time I return to the US after spending time abroad I get depressed.

[@jamesherrick3751]

Would like to see you post more often about is going on with this current world situation

[@LearnwithJanice]

Hello from rural Kansas🇺🇸

[@unjustifiablyneglectedtopi8293]

Excellent video 👏

[@hewhohasnoidentity4377]

The whole history of the Interstate Commerce Commission or ICC is a concept that I have always found interesting. The whole concept of the regulatory power they had makes me wonder if our government was misleading the country while they were actually trying to be more Communist than The USSR. When it comes to central planning, price controls, mandated inefficiencies, forced labor, rationing of food supplies and the reallocation of income.... It seems the US was talking up capitalism while effectively managing the economy with more government control than any of the "Red States" Then once the rest of the world gave Capitalism an honest attempt we have almost finished our experiment with capitalism and soon 20 people will have 99.999% of the nation's wealth and everyone else just has to accept the end of the game.

[@arifalfarizi1972]

Mantap kawan👍 Salam dari Indonesia 🇲🇨

[@gamehub2641]

My home city is the cover of the video😌

[@JamesBond-ko7ky]

Can you make a video about the portuguese railways?

[@RailwaysExplained]

We will definitely do that in the future.

[@JamesBond-ko7ky]

@@RailwaysExplained Thanks, I can´t wait ahah! I really enjoy your work, keep it up!

[@matthewtymczyszyn8948]

But only if the Lisbon trolley gets its own video. It’s a beast unto itself.

[@RailwaysExplained]

What is it?

[@JamesBond-ko7ky]

@@RailwaysExplained I think he is tlaking about this ones kzbin.info/www/bejne/j56Yn4hng5p0ask

[@jenevievecrouch1145]

I feel like it is hard to see American travel without cars.I am not crazy about cars in any way but most Americans rely on that or planes to get to where they're going.Even though there are companies like Brightline stepping in,Amtrak has a hold on passenger trains but is poorly funded and shares tracks with freight companies.

[@TohaBgood2]

We basically don't fund Amtrak. The freight have historically gotten incredibly, outrageous subsidies and free land (!) all over the country in exchange for subsidizing passenger operations. Amtrak was created to let them offload those subsidized passenger commitments when they were all going bankrupt. It was assumed that Amtrak will fold within a few years. The fact that we still have Amtrak at all is a miracle! We need to create a budget for Amtrak like the highways and airports have!

[@trainsbreath6517]

Great catch😍

[@ronnypauwels2963]

There are so many train accidents why ! tracks that are not straight and uneven and all train material on the track that does not have buffers.

[@NozomuYume]

"NEC Corridor".... so the "North East Corridor Corridor"?

[@RailwaysExplained]

yes yes :D

[@spectex304]

Murica has railway already... All they need is to use it.

[@pampham27]

where's hyper loop

[@romanrat5613]

in the clouds

[@penguinsfan251]

Due to the size and population density of the US, high speed rail really does not make much sense outside of the Northeast Corridor. Given the increase of people who can work from home, fewer people will need to commute in the future. Diesels pull freight as they are more cost effective and efficient at doing so They really don't pollute that much anyway. The biggest enemy of railroading is precision scheduled railroading. It's just an extra cheap way to operate the freight trains with little concern for customers or the future.

[@TohaBgood2]

Literally no one is proposing that we have HSR outside of the areas where it makes sense. A lot of experts have looked at this and there are several not only viable but extremely profitable potential corridors. This includes the Texas Triangle, California SF-LA, South-Central Florida, Chicago area, and a few others. NO ONE is proposing that we replace airlines with HSR outside of these high-traffic corridors. No one ever suggested that. But there are these city pairs where HSR would simply destroy all other transport competition because the distance is just right for HSR and too big/too small for cars and planes. That's 100-500 mile trips between two major metros.

[@romanrat5613]

@@TohaBgood2 by some of the rebuttals you would think the HSR proponents demand a link between every small town in the US

[@TohaBgood2]

@@romanrat5613 No one ever even suggests this. HSR is fundamentally a high-volume mode of transportation. It is supposed to replace short-haul flights under 500 miles. If the destinations don't deserve an airport they usually have no need for HSR either. I hear this nonsense almost always being peddled by opponents of HSR. They're the only ones perpetuating this conversation. No one else is even interesting in discussing this. It makes no sense.

[@odiliusrailfans]

Try to explained Indonesian railroads

[@RailwaysExplained]

Check Indonesian HSR that we made

[@odiliusrailfans]

@@RailwaysExplained no not the Indonesian HSR but Indonesia Conventional Railroads (PT. Kereta Api Indonesia persero) including Manggarai become the Central station but not Grand Central station like Bang Sue & Paris Gare du Nord😅

[@RailwayNetworks]

Great video 👌

[@RailwaysExplained]

Glad you enjoyed

Not as bad. Just worse.

[@mrrandom347]

I know already that USA has best railway system. But only problem is it's too Expensive

[@hybrid5362]

Cap

[@jenevievecrouch1145]

@@hybrid5362 Exactly.Has this person even been here?

[@TheFarix2723]

"You can have a freight rail network or a passenger rail network, but you cannot have both." Does that about sum things up?

[@marcvandyck8052]

No it doesn't. Russia has both passenger and freight, and clearly does well on both.

[@sciencecw]

It is certainly possible to be good at both. Though American freight system seems to show that it may be more efficient to focus on freight, especially for longer distances

[@Racko.]

Depends on logistics and Geography, the only other nation that managed to pull both of good is just Russia, Chinese has a huge high speed rail network just like Japan and Europe but their Freight network is pennies compared to North America and Australia

[@cameron7938]

California rail is so stupid lol I can't even take a train from an hour directly south to the capital Sacramento, and the trains that there are are regularly like 30+ minutes late on top of whatever delay you end up having along the way. I just want to be able to take the train slightly north god damnit lol

[@mamarussellthepie3995]

duh

[@stekra3159]

Amtrack just needs to by all the class 1 railroeds just get its hands on the track.

[@colinwisner1016]

If you had an alternate history where GM didn't kill off the streetcar, or Conrail deciding on keeping freight service in the northeast Electrified, then America would look different.

[@archstanton5973]

GM didn't kill shit. The streetcar system across the USofA was dying by the 1920s because of Ford and the Depression finished them off. Streetcars did NOT die in places like Los Angeles and Dallas and Indianapolis and so forth. *STREETCARS DIED ACROSS THE SMALL TOWNS IN PLACE IN IOWA AND OHIO AND MISSOURI AND VIRGINIA AND NEBRASKA AND ARKANSAS AND NORTH CAROLINA AND NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA AND KENTUCKY AND......* The streetcars in places like New York and LA and Chicago and Hartford and New Orleans were already on their last leg when GM simply picked them off.

[@sharkheadism]

_"an alternate history where GM didn't kill off the streetcar"_ - That's this timeline

[@colinwisner1016]

@@sharkheadism the streetcar lines of the past.

[@sharkheadism]

@@colinwisner1016 Streetcars were losing market share to buses as early as the 20s. As bus technology rapidly developed, more transit systems began switching to buses. This trend continued until after WW2 when all transit ridership went into a steep decline.

[@colinwisner1016]

@@sharkheadism before the 1920's if you looked at a map of the various interurban lines in the great lakes region and Chicago, you could possibly take a ride on multiple lines from Milwaukee, to St Louis, or Milwaukee to Louisville. Look at the map of the North Shore Line, Chicago and Joliet, Chicago Ottawa and Peoria, Illinois terminal, Indiana Railroad, Chicago south shore and south bend, etc.

[@urosradovanovic7720]

Make SERBIAAnext

[@RailwaysExplained]

U planu nam je da uradimo i video o Srbiji u jednom trenutku 😁

[@kanny8851]

6:44 this is wrong, i have lived in the EU all my life, and when i saw this, i knew that this source was unreliable. Edit: list your sources, please.

[@romanrat5613]

You understand that this graph is for freight, not passengers, right?

[@m.m.2310]

this title is aging very poorly

[@andrewmartineau5445]

Amtrak is inefficient and needs to be privatized. It has lost money every year since it was first created in 1971.

[@romanrat5613]

Amtrak was created with the condition that it would BE PROFITABLE. It has not "lost" money (gained subsidies)

[@killtyrant]

7:34 Something to also note about electrified rails (not sure if it gets mentioned here or not) most of the US power grid is based on coal/natural gas burning. So even if the trains themselves are cleaner, its sourced power isnt. It's why I'm a big proponent of nuclear power.

[@TohaBgood2]

Even with coal as the source of electricity (the most CO2 polluting), electrified trains are incredibly non-polluting and green. Even now with significantly more polluting and old diesel locomotives, US freight railroads are several times less polluting than trucks! And electric vehicles charged from coal are still less polluting than conventional gasoline cars! It is true that we need more sources of non-CO2 electricity sources and sources that don't rely on foreign dictators for fuel. Nevertheless, let's not lose track of the actual tangible improvements that electrifying trains and other transportation will bring even zero (!) movement on renewables or nuclear! All the more since when these new non-polluting energy sources do come about, they automatically reduce the impact of already electrified rail! These two processes, electrification of our economy and renewables and nuclear need to be parallel processes that are unhampered by lack of progress on one of the fronts!

[@killtyrant]

@@TohaBgood2 Might be a tall ask but do you have any citations to back up your claims?

[@TohaBgood2]

@@killtyrant Sure, but I have to search for them. I have a bunch of this stuff bookmarked somewhere. What particularly are you interested in? Efficiency of electrified trains or electric cars charged from coal power? Keep in mind that even in this video he states that diesel trains are four times more efficient than trucks.

[@killtyrant]

@@TohaBgood2 The electric car powered from coal still being cleaner than conventional gasoline. Its something I've always wondered about