You don’t need comparisons with China. The argument that one’s country is too big and expansive for rail only works when a) that country is poor, which the US is not; and b) when that country doesn’t already have the largest rail network in the world, which the US has.
American States often have an economy that is nominally larger than that of comparable European nations. Those States have rail for freight. The lack of good rail for passenger is a political choice.
It’s insane to have to remind people that cars didn’t always exist and the main way that people traveled before them was by rail. Like idk how most Americans picture the period between the current era and the oregon fucking trail but it sure seems like most of them think we were fording rivers and dying of dysentery right up to the day Henry Ford (the proud and outspoken nazi) invented the assembly line (added a conveyor belt to the process) and thereby bestowed mankind with the gift of the mass-produced automobile (the conversion of a public good into an industry that made him privately wealthy).
The politicians have been bribed to keep rail for freight as much as possible. The rail companies push to have longer and longer trains so that the passenger trains, which are supposed to have right of way on tracks, have to take the bypass tracks to let freight trains pass. Freight also has one of the highest profit margins in a business at close to 50%, mostly b/c of them cutting every possible corner they can while maximizing load and shipping frequency. The rail industry is need of regulation, overhaul, and infrastructure development.
On Xiaohongshu, I see the opposite, where some Chinese people refuse to believe that the US has a homeless problem, or thar our cops are beating innocent people.
What’s their reasoning? Liberal brain worms?
Generally it boils down to, “no way it’s actually that bad lmao” and “that’s just our state slandering its enemy” which are fair perspectives have imo. I’m envious that the reality of American social violence is absurd enough to be unbelievable to them.
Back during the TikTok/Redbook silliness last year, I heard the quip: “The US Government tells lies their people believe are truths, while the Chinese government tells truths their people believe are lies.”
There’s a lot of “just comply” sentiment on XHS.
Bro, 20% of the US is in the northeast and another 10% is in California. Just build regional HSR’s. Don’t tell me you think a fucking train is literally impossible.
Florida was supposed to start building a high speed rail system years ago. Then Rick Scott got elected governor, and unilaterally cancelled the program, something he never mentioned when he was campaigning.
He later replaced it with a standard rail system that he had a 3% ownership stake in, because that’s how Rick Scott rolls.
You’re dumb for saying this but I won’t say why
every day the hatred i feel for the amerikkkan ruling class wanes in comparison to the hate i feel for the amerikkkan people
Whenever they have nothing left to go on, critics of China pull out “well they’re lying about their numbers”.
But no one dares accuse them of lying about how much consumer products in American houses are made in China.
Witchhunt for “historians” when? Of all liberals this type is the fucking worst.
I must have imagined riding all over China on their high speed rail
I’m sure the xitter user would be “inclined to believe” you’re making it up.
Check mate.
Real People™️do not go to China, only XiBots and Shills do.
“If the data gives me cognitive dissonance then the data must be wrong.”
- liberals all of the time
My sister’s boyfriend did this to me when we went for a drive together. I wasn’t even showing my tankie side but any oblique mention of china that wasn’t explicitly negative was instantly met with “they lie about all their stats”
And any negative stat is consumed and regurgitated as truth, regardless of how dubious the source is.
China fudges their numbers on this the way they do on everything else
yeah they’re actually in their own replies going “no no no your argument is terrible, just be racist, that will actually persuade me. c’mon.”
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I’d look for a way to mail this to burgerlanders… if they knew how to read
It is very funny to post the UK, whose only high speed rail is between London and Paris. Nothing domestic at all.
If I was living in the UK I’d want to get out of the country as fast as possible too.
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they’re not doing it
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if they did it, they’re not doing it right
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if they say they did it right, they’re lying
- and if they actually did do it, then AT WHAT COST?
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aKKKschtually we DO have high speed rails, they just go in loops
America doesn’t even have the fastest roller coasters anymore, because of woke.
I cannot in a million years imagine the kind of hubris needed in order to go in a 250 kph ride in a steel car built by literal slaves. Class Action Park seems more sensible to me than that
If you drove through 90% of that UK-sized landmass, you’d see nothing. Pure, blissful, mind-numbing nothingness. The American West fucking stunned me when I saw how much open space there is. Maybe five cities across that entire area would make the route economical. I still want it more than anything else for the region though.
“We can’t have HSR cuz big empty”
You should have HSR because big empty
HSR is astronomically easier to build through big flat empty
Big mountainy empty is a bit harder, but China’s done that too
Forget HSR. I’d take R.
In present-day America you can take only L.
At this point I’d honestly be willing to accept a functioning bus network. Even that isn’t available in my area.
My old city in the US essentially lost even the regional bus systems. It’s still sort of running, but outsourced and on time is a myth.
It’s a city of 600k metro pop, and still can’t have basic transit services because… Just because…
I mean Amtrak exists, and goes through a lot of this empty area. But it’s stupidly expensive and takes literal days.
Everyone always forgets that the cities develop around the trains, not the other way around.
Back in the day it was the rivers, because that was the major method of transport.
People just like, don’t know how things develop at all.
you build a settler in a city and send them over to a big empty area, check the yields and just plop down a city. Name it: EagleScreech or some such
But what if that big flat empty was filled with cow demons and corn demons who feed the cow demons for beef that most of the people in the big flat empty can’t afford now?
they literally genocided natives just to do nothing with most of the land. it’s pathetic. but i’m supposed to be in awe because of cowboys or something
Think of what we’ve done for the cows. They hate us because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak.
Okay, to be fair, Wyoming should be empty because that shit is insane. One time, I had my HEAVY WINTER COAT in the back seat when I went to fill up gas and thought, “I’ll hop out of the car real quick and put it on”. Buddy, that coat got raptured. It was in Nebraska before I knew what hit me.
Driving through Wyoming is so uniquely terrifying that I don’t do it unless the weather is perfect. I-25 to Cheyenne is considered tame by their standards and the winds are so high that it throws your car around while tipping over 18-wheelers. There are a lot of Colorado roads that I only travel seasonally, but we are so tame compared to Wyoming’s obsession with wind. They need to stop with that shit.
I have a vivid memory of driving in whiteout conditions in Wyoming but sandwiched by semis that I couldn’t even see, so I couldn’t afford to slow down. I could only rely on google maps to make sure the road stayed straight. 20 minutes later, absolutely beautiful day. Unhinged state
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I’ve been on various Chinese HSR routes, consistently going at ~250kph. I’m not exaggerating when I say they were all the best and fastest trains I’ve been on. The UK’s train network is absolutely laughable in comparison, and somehow the USA’s is even worse than that.
