373
submitted 3 months ago by meldrik@lemmy.wtf to c/europe@feddit.org
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 3 points 3 months ago

And yes, you read that right, the vast majority of Amtrak’s alignments are shared with freight rail.

Isn't that kinda normal, though?

[-] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

My understanding is that most passenger rail in Europe and Asia runs on dedicated tracks. I misspoke, I should have said tracks, not alignments. It would be much less of an issue if Amtrak had its own tracks on a given freight alignment. Instead, they share tracks, and regularly get delayed, speed capped at lower speeds than they could safely operate at otherwise, and generally jerked around by the freight operators.

[-] freebee@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

I think this perception is false.

On many big rail corridors like Antwerp/Rotterdam through Germany/Switzerland to Milan/Torino/Genova a lot or the rails are very shared by freight and passengers.

There are dedicated passengers rails mostly on (expensive to ride) high speed lines and there are dedicated freight tracks within ports and such, but a lot of tracks are still shared by both.

Plenty of saturated lines where you can see everything pass by: intercities, S-bahn style, freight all on same tracks and only at certains stops can they overtake each other.

[-] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

Thanks for this feedback, it's caused me to re-evaluate some positions!

[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

From my experience in Germany, that's not really true. Freight trains regularly run on the same tracks and through the same train stations as passenger trains (of course they don't actually stop at passenger train stations). There's some dedicated tracks of course, especially to and from freight stations, but I AFAIK that's not the majority of tracks they're running on.

Could be separate tracks in countries that actually have well-run train networks, though.

this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
373 points (97.9% liked)

Europe

1483 readers
640 users here now

News and information from Europe 🇪🇺

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in !yurop@lemm.ee. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)

(This list may get expanded when necessary.)

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @federalreverse@feddit.org, @poVoq@slrpnk.net, or @anzo@programming.dev.

founded 4 months ago
MODERATORS