considering that US was a world leader in terms of rail transport upto WW II, why the abysmally low numbers?
We spent all our rail money on the interstate highways and their exorbitant maintenance costs.
Comment on California launches electric trains as US lags behind world in rail electrification
kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 3 months ago
Till 2019, <1 % of total rail in US was electrified according to Wikipedia? Is this true; considering that US was a world leader in terms of rail transport upto WW II, why the abysmally low numbers? I know that privatisation of rail networks and car centred cities makes life tough for rails, but 1 % is abysmally low for a developed nation.
In contrast, China is at 75% and India is at 93% respectively and both of them also have giant railway networks.
Cort@lemmy.world 3 months ago
AA5B@lemmy.world 3 months ago
They’re probably not counting subways. It may even be just intercity rail, which mostly supports freight. You have thousands of miles of freight rail crossing the entire country, and only the Acela track in the northeast is electrified
Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 3 months ago
The WW II US rail network is loonnnnggggg gone and doesn’t really have any effect on the modern day. What remains is mostly freight rail run by a few oversized rail corporations… and they’re surely in no hurry to abandon their diesel engines.
There’s also not huge political pressure because rail is already a very efficient way to transport goods. Spreading rail would have better effects than electrifying rail.