5mo ago

India's rail network is nearly 100% electrified. The U.S. is at 1%

www.fastcompany.com /91178844/indias-rail-network-is-nearly-100-electrified-the-u-s-is-at-1

10 comments

The US barely has any rail network. We should have built high speed cross country trains by this point. But lobbyists.

The US has a relationship with trains that's quite different from many other countries due to its history. For example in Germany a passenger train will have priority over a freight train, but in the US it's the other way around. That has many consequences.
I'm not knowledgeable on the topic, it's just a little thing I know.

@Beaver And India thought that was a good idea even when rolling black outs have been a normal part of life. Electricity is just that good of a solution to many things.

We don't even have reliable power in large parts of the US. Not sure we'll be getting eletricified train infrastructure anytime in our lifetimes.
- @Ptsf @Beaver Compared to India? Which parts of the USA ration which hours/days each region of a city gets power?
  When I was in a random restaurant in some Indian town the drinks we ordered took an insane amount of time to be prepared. We realised that was because an employee had to ride a bike to somewhere that had power to make our drinks and ride them back to us.
  The US is a bastion of peak reliability compared to India.
  
  I did not compare it to India. I was using reliable power (which far and significantly more Americans care about than reliable public transport) as an analog for an example of our priorities. Since we clearly care about reliable power and cannot get it right, the likelihood in my mind that we'll fix public transport in our lifetimes is next to zero without serious cultural and governmental change. Also, India is not comparable to America without looking at a brevity of complex factors like population size, density, and wealth. It'd be wise not to genuinely compare the two on any singular issue as you'll set yourself up for multiple substantive arguments regardless your position. IE: if you're looking through a 2 billion person sized lens, you'll be able to find examples to support most viewpoints. Additionally your anecdotal evidence for the US being a bastion of reliability disregards the impoverished areas of the US that do not meet your preconceived notions.
  
  @Ptsf @Beaver Now if someone wants to argue that electrifying the trains caused the power insecurity, they'd still be wrong, but at least in a way that is logical.

10 comments