Are there actual design problems or is it just that Burgerlanders have no respect for train right-of-way? I mean, it’s not like it’s going to sneak up on and surprise people…
Viaducts aren’t even that expensive, its just expensive in america and other western countries because their construction industries have turned into massive embezzlement complexes where layer after layer of subcontractors and consultants all need their cut. 12 years and 30 billion dollars later the 12 construction workers they’ve actually hired manage to finish the work right on time for it to need repairs.
The other issue is that where a normal country has a regulatory state that says where you can and can’t build and with what materials at which hours, instead the US has a system of public review periods and civil litigation. So a few concerned citizens or reluctant landowners can jam up the works for months and months through lawsuits, requesting additional reviews, etc.
When I was getting a homeless shelter permitted we had to fight the neighbors and their friends in city government for multiple years, and the whole time my team was getting city funding to fight them those whole two years, i think it cost the city 300k in staffing costs on our end alone (not to mention the city employees who got paid even more to Stonewall us)
We ended up breaking ground without a permit because breaking the law had fewer consequences than following it.
That was for one shelter. Now imagine a whole train system with 200 nimby communities along its route.
Now imagine a whole train system with 200 nimby communities along its route.
And also imagine that none of the people working on it actually care whether it happens, so they’d never break the law to put an end to the infinite work glitch
This is very true. It is becoming more common to use 4 actual gate arms to fully block vehicles, but many (most?) crossings only block the right-side lane on each side of the crossing, which means cars can do a diagonal maneuver to go around the gate arms. I’m guessing this is probably what is happening in many of these cases.
I once was a few blocks away when someone jumped in front of a train. They weren’t very mentally stable and had been in a downward spiral for a while. People I knew (who knew the person better than I did) said they just declared they were going to do it, marched right up to the tracks, and did it.
The length of the train meant that about a half-mile length through town was completely obstructed for several hours while cleanup and paperwork were done, and there was a milling crowd around the 50-foot-or-so perimeter. I caught a glimpse of a bodybag but people who were closer said there really wasn’t much left of the body.
I live near a crossing that has very long shipping container trains running through it pretty frequently, I see someone race the train through the barrier about once a month. Never done it myself, I know for a fact that if I did my car would die right on the tracks.
Non-US countries do a much better job of grade separating their high speed rail for this reason (among others). Introducing new level crossings is illegal even in the but in the US they don’t care, most of brightline’s route is covered in street level crosssings
And also, the level crossings that brightline uses are dogshit, they’re basically the same as all low speed rail crossings in the USA, a single bar for each direction of traffic (covering only the lanes going that direction, not the whole wide-ass roadway), depending on street layout they can be trivial to drive around, and often placed high enough that small vehicles can reasonably drive under it with minimal damage (it will hit their windshield and deflect up out of the way. I don’t think people are doing this intentionally but it’s not a serious barrier is my point).
and finally, american drivers are pretty dogshit and often think they can beat the train (american freight rail is so dogshit that if you get stuck at a crossing you might be stuck there for 2 mins or 10 mins or in rare cases 30+ mins, so people not expecting an 80-120mph train feel incentivized to cut it close to escape being stuck at the crossing). It does sort of ironically “sneak up” on people. obviously there’s plentiful warning signs but the ability to see/hear it coming is much less than with a freight train.
edit actually
they aren’t permitted to sound the horn for much of the route, which exacerbates the above
there isn’t even fencing along much of the corridor so they also hit pedestrians crossing outside of street crossings
only 13% of the fatalities are people in cars, most are pedestrians or cyclists. The first fatality was a young bipolar woman hit by a test train before it even opened, and the company insists on calling most of the deaths “suspected suicides” with no real evidence.
bonus facts, its also of note that for all the hubbub in the US about how revolutionary it is/was to be doing privately run/financed high speed rail:
it actually was not high speed rail in any meaningful way until late 2023, almost 6 years after its opening, when the orlando segments opened (125/110mph speeds). The original west palm beach to miami segment, like 1/3 the total trip is to this day capped at 79mph which is the same as amtrak speeds in most of the country, and the same top speed as the local commuter rail that it shares tracks with. nothing special
it is still slower than driving (not a deal breaker, but again, comparable to short/medium distances on amtrak)
it was financed using tax-free bonds, of the type usually only available to municipalities
Are there actual design problems or is it just that Burgerlanders have no respect for train right-of-way? I mean, it’s not like it’s going to sneak up on and surprise people…
The actual design problem is that it’s running on existing at-grade rail because proper grade separation is too expensive for private enterprise.
Viaducts aren’t even that expensive, its just expensive in america and other western countries because their construction industries have turned into massive embezzlement complexes where layer after layer of subcontractors and consultants all need their cut. 12 years and 30 billion dollars later the 12 construction workers they’ve actually hired manage to finish the work right on time for it to need repairs.
The other issue is that where a normal country has a regulatory state that says where you can and can’t build and with what materials at which hours, instead the US has a system of public review periods and civil litigation. So a few concerned citizens or reluctant landowners can jam up the works for months and months through lawsuits, requesting additional reviews, etc.
When I was getting a homeless shelter permitted we had to fight the neighbors and their friends in city government for multiple years, and the whole time my team was getting city funding to fight them those whole two years, i think it cost the city 300k in staffing costs on our end alone (not to mention the city employees who got paid even more to Stonewall us)
We ended up breaking ground without a permit because breaking the law had fewer consequences than following it.
That was for one shelter. Now imagine a whole train system with 200 nimby communities along its route.
And also imagine that none of the people working on it actually care whether it happens, so they’d never break the law to put an end to the infinite work glitch
You mean to say that it would cut too much into profits.
Yes that’s what that means.
Nah, that’s what capitalists mean when they say that, but it’s not what that means. That’s an important distinction.
This is a real Brightline grade crossing, for context:
Credit: Banks Rail on youtube
Hoo-wee look at that nine lane road with a level crossing
American civil engineering is unparalleled.
the interesection of Death Boulevard and Car Crusher Avenue
Yeeeesh that’s sketchy - it would be illegal to build that here.
Yeah, much as I like to blame drivers, this isn’t really an individual problem
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
it’s the latter
but also obviously American crossing gates suck as well
This is very true. It is becoming more common to use 4 actual gate arms to fully block vehicles, but many (most?) crossings only block the right-side lane on each side of the crossing, which means cars can do a diagonal maneuver to go around the gate arms. I’m guessing this is probably what is happening in many of these cases.
When I used to ride CalTrain
CW: suicide
most of the fatalities were stressed high school kids jumping in front of the train on purpose
I expect something like that also occasionally happens with Brightline.
per the COC thread that CW should be for suicide rather than self-harm as those are different things and non-suicidal self-harm is common
edited
What a fucking awful way to die. I can’t imagine choosing to go like that.
It’s probably very quick but scary for a couple of seconds. Those poor fucking engineers on the other hand.
CW- personal experience involving exactly this
I once was a few blocks away when someone jumped in front of a train. They weren’t very mentally stable and had been in a downward spiral for a while. People I knew (who knew the person better than I did) said they just declared they were going to do it, marched right up to the tracks, and did it.
The length of the train meant that about a half-mile length through town was completely obstructed for several hours while cleanup and paperwork were done, and there was a milling crowd around the 50-foot-or-so perimeter. I caught a glimpse of a bodybag but people who were closer said there really wasn’t much left of the body.
I live near a crossing that has very long shipping container trains running through it pretty frequently, I see someone race the train through the barrier about once a month. Never done it myself, I know for a fact that if I did my car would die right on the tracks.
there are actual design problems. see my comment below
The train kills 2 dozen people per year, this is not normal even in amerika
Supposedly this line has barriers at every crossing, so it’s just car-brained people doing their thing I guess.
Its both. Or all 3 I guess.
edit actually
only 13% of the fatalities are people in cars, most are pedestrians or cyclists. The first fatality was a young bipolar woman hit by a test train before it even opened, and the company insists on calling most of the deaths “suspected suicides” with no real evidence.
Ugh, of course in
the one high speed rail line also has to kill cyclists and pedestrians more than cars.
bonus facts, its also of note that for all the hubbub in the US about how revolutionary it is/was to be doing privately run/financed high speed rail:
It has better hype and marketing than anything, and US train enthusiasts are so cucked they feel they have no choice but to stan, I guess