19 points

The problem it can’t solve is that rich people might have to interact with mere humans. The car in a tube seats four and locks, so there’s zero chance you’ll have to sit next to a minority.

I wonder if rail would be more appealing to them if the coaches were designed as multiple isolated cells that seated 4-6, rather than straight-through corridors that permit mingling. (I’ve seen some old designs like that, in German narrow-gauge form)

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7 points

The problem it can’t solve is that rich people might have to interact with mere humans.

I can relate. We, in Indonesia, have a problem where politicians, whose never even ride a train before, gets to decide the policies about public transport, and those who gets the consequenece is low-middle class who uses public transport. There was a meme from a year ago where a tone-deaf politician says the overcrowded trains in Jakarta doesn’t exist even though it overcrowding is clearly a problem in regional line (KRL) due to lack of trains.

I wonder if rail would be more appealing to them if the coaches were designed as multiple isolated cells that seated 4-6, rather than straight-through corridors that permit mingling.

Assuming we’re talking about short distance trains, absolutely no, lol. It’s just space inefficient. I will understand if it is a long distance trains, and it is a thing.

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2 points
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Short-distance city trains used to have multiple compartments too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_Door_(train) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris_(train)

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1 point

I assumed the parent commenter meant this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compartment_coach

But if the commenter meant cross-seat trains like this:

then yeah it exists

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Things like the “C-Trains” in Calgary, despite being intended for mass transit (and ridden mainly by the poors) are also multi-compartment.

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2 points

You think public transit would be better if there were more obstructed sight-lines? Hunh. Are you also volunteering for mop duty if that’s not actually how things turn out?

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1 point

i continue to weep for the death of Per Albin Hansson, the old social democrat leader who was so steadfast in riding the tram home to his apartment that he’s known for his death happening immediately after stepping off the tram (heart attack) when he could have chosen to be driven home by another politician.

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10 points
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The Vegas loop is a 2 mile tunnel accessible only to Teslas. It’s not solving any problems. They want to expand it- I don’t think that will go well.

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3 points
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How is it making money (as mentioned in the post), do people also have to pay to use it?

Edit: found it https://lvloop.com/tickets

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3 points

Turns out it is a taxi service. I thought it is a tunnel that anyone could take to save time as well. Here’s a video of how it works.

Another interesting bit that I discovered is that city is not paying for these tunnels, they are covered by Boring company. Now it makes a bit more sense why this thing was ever allowed.

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8 points

Those tunnels are a death trap. The person who approved it should be investigated

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4 points

And they’ll throw their arms up and say “who could have predicted that ???” When something terrible happens (conveniently ignoring decades of road tunnels accidents and the safeties precautions we learned from them)

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3 points

Yeah, EV batteries and very narrow tunnel (so narrow you can’t open the car door apparently) is a bad combination

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The reasons it’s so narrow is that Apartheid Manchild’s “Boring Company” has drills that are too small for the projects he envisions using them for.

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5 points

I mean, light rail seems to be pretty effective in Portland, the problems it does have don’t really seem to be efficiency related.

  1. Crime.
    https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/stabbing-portland-max-gateway-transit-center/283-e7d8681f-b6fa-4f2e-801a-2880b8f60eaa

https://www.opb.org/article/2024/10/23/portland-max-stabbing-crime-trimet-death-oregon-bus-lawsuit/

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2024/07/max-train-murderer-jeremy-christians-convictions-stand-court-of-appeals-rejects-all-his-arguments.html

  1. Snow and ice makes the tracks and switches fail all the time. If it’s snowing, stay home.

https://www.koin.com/news/portland/extensive-damage-max-service-remains-suspended-due-to-winter-weather/

  1. Hot weather makes the overhead power lines expand causing trains to have to slow down. If it’s near or over 100°, stay home.

https://trimet.org/alerts/hotweather.htm

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4 points

Thanks for the reply. TIL about the Portland’s LRT. After watching a video about it [1], my impression about the LRT is that it seems like one of the best LRT in North America.

The crime part is really unfortunate though, and I doubt there is anything the LRT can do about it as it’s not their fault, rather, it’s probably a systematic problem, cmiiw.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpfRKqy96_E

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4 points

Musk is not “people in the US”, and most of those have no say in what “gets built”, so rephrase your blame, fellow crab in the bucket.

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3 points

Yeah, should have rephrased that. AFAIK Elon is a South African, not even US citizen right?

I’m not even from USA to be clear, but my limited image of USA is that it lacks efforts of building public transport, especially compared to other developed countries. Heck, compared to developing countries even.

One of the example, US seems like a perfect place to build a high-speed rail network. Yet, CAHSR seems to keep getting delayed. In comparison Morocco has a HSR. Even Indonesia has one opened last year.

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3 points

No, he gained US citizenship in 2002.

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1 point

You’re gonna love the history rabbit hole re: the automotive industry lobbying and all but singlehandedly squashing rail expansion (see: highways), NGL. 👨🏽‍🍳

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2 points
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I think we should stop saying “lobbying” and start saying “corruption” or “bribing” isntead

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