this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2026
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United States | News & Politics

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[–] running_ragged@lemmy.world 13 points 6 hours ago (2 children)
[–] Mirshe@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Which is what all of US transport runs on (yes, almost all trains too because railroads decided that electrified overhead looks ugly and needs more maintenance), and is largely the main driver of everything getting more and more expensive.

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 13 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

For context for others, US is abnormally very low in train electrification compared to other developed countries. It's not zero though, for instance there is the Northeast Corridor which is electrified and the most used passenger train routes in the US

Here's a map of what's electrified in the US

And here's it with the rest of the rail network

Meanwhile here's what it looks like in Europe


There are now some battery-electric train options if the US wanted to use a stop gap solution to allow partial electrification to more quickly be a line without any diesel needed. Though a fully electrified line would be more ideal for the longer-term

[–] Cricket@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 hours ago

Those maps are cool. How did you generate or get them?

the rail lines are already expensive and long, I can't imagine the cost of electrifying them (in thr short term)

[–] wheezy@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 hours ago

This. It's approaching $7 in the Seattle area near me and that was last I saw a few days ago before the massive oil price rise we had today.