Planes are bad because you need to land at an airport and there aren't airports everywhere.

Cars bad because you need to dig in order to make 20 lane wide highways.

I don't need to be lectured by a guy with a bluecheck about poor economic decisions

When the concepts of scale and efficiency defy your understanding

If the paragon of poor economic choices is overtaking you economically, how truly below awful is your country doing?!

Every problem with rail this person lists is also a problem with every other form of transportation. You also have to lay roads, docks, or airports to get stuff where you're going. Infrastructure has to be built unless you're transporting stuff by donkey.

Rails are still less expensive to build and maintain. Railroads are something like 2/3 the cost of equivalent lengths of highway, and yet have greater cargo capacity and fuel efficiency.

Literally the most efficient form of land-based transport ever invented. Steel wheels on steel rails have very low rolling resistance.
NAH, it's bad because you can't clog up the lines with masses of inefficient, tiny, personal trains.
Also, you have to dig through hills and mountains to lay track - you definitely don't need to do that for highways (except for all the ones that you do)

Ben Norton was dunking on this absurd take

Many hard science programs in the US indoctrinate graduates with neoliberal economic dogma while leaving them politically and historically illiterate. But because they have PhDs, they arrogantly believe they know everything, and make extremely stupid comments like this, showing they are actually deeply ignorant about many things. Just because you worked for NASA doesn't mean you know anything outside of your narrow field.

twitter | nitter

This loser also has "hyperloop" in his bio, which should instantly disqualify you from ever talking about transit ever again

: "YOU DISAGREED! YOU DISAGREED! THAT PROVES ME RIGHT SOMEHOW!"

And if China is the paragon of poor economic choices, then how is it considered a threat to US hegemony?

This mf said enjoy digging as if they’ve ever had to pick up a shovel and dig to make a living.

i really appreciate that a blue check indicates a post that you don't need to take seriously.

Want to create car-length transport on rail roads? Can’t.

What car brain does to a MF.

Besides, we already have a work-around for that, as well as the “what if the railroad doesn’t go there?” problem: Auto train. Train can take you 90% of the way and then take the personal vehicle the last 10%.

“THE PARAGON OF POOR ECONOMIC CHOICES”?

Motherfucker,

Economically, there were initial concerns, particularly outside China, over the high-speed rail's cost, debt and profitability. However, research by the Paulson Institute has estimated the net benefit of the high-speed rail to the Chinese economy to be approximately $378 billion, with an annual return on investment of 6.5%.

When society treats these people like the infants they are, we might actually make some progress. Instead, we entertain every crackpot idea with mountains of VC money and government grants while shunning superior, already-existing technology. And I'm sure it would surprise these morons to find out that trains are still improving significantly and we're not still riding what were essentially steam powered bombs. I know it's all to sustain car supremacy but fuck, I just want one city council to treat the carbrains and NIMBYs like the adult children they are. Escort them to the play room with the hot wheels and lincoln logs and tell them to make their model town and city council will take a Polaroid and hang it on the fridge.

What's his PhD in, bootlicking?

Sorry sweetie, you wouldn't understand, I have a PhD, didn't you look at my Twitter display name?

hills or mountains

Switzerland famous for not having trains

Also, as if digging through hills and mountains has ever been an issue since the invention of dynamite.

Every single year on my 10 feet above see level flat road highway has half its lanes closed for 1-2 months in order to repair the potholes that form every single year from weather and weight.

This moron thinks digging isn’t a vital aspect of building roads?

Shouldn't rail be more necessary than ever with global population having risen 8x since the invention of the steam locomotive and a consistently increasing % of people living in urban environments? Cars are more useful when you live in a sprawled out town in the middle of fucking nowhere and there aren't a thousand people in your area trying to get to work at the same time as you.

The American economy is dependent on massive freight rail networks.

If trains were invented today itd be incredible for trains as seen by how every hyped up vaporware transportation invention is just a train but worse

first of all, considering any technology's efficiency in a vacuum is nonsense, so jot that down. If trains are efficient because the infrastructure already exists, then they are efficient, full stop.

second, that's not an opinion, it's just wrong. Trains are a way to move a maximum of weight along a predetermined route continually for a minimum operating cost. Maybe their only competitor is pipelines, and that only works for fluids. In every complex system the easiest way to reduce overhead is by bundling operations. Shipping everything in North America by long haul truck would require less coordination, but it would also cost more labor power, take more time, and destroy the environment more.

This idiot isn't actually a PhD, is he?

Physicist

Ah. So literally just some guy that paid for twitter.

Hyperloop

Scratch that, he's a guy that's trying to build a train but worse, and he probably got an email telling him he has to pay for twitter.

e: Also he has a fake company trying to bilk investors with a magic bullet perpetual energy machine. The dickriding is spectacular

If Trains were invented today, they'd be really useful, because we wouldn't have invented Cars either.

Why do idiots assume that that every faucet of life will be replaced by trains just because someone advocates for them? Why do they project their myopic mindset to everyone?

reading these tweets after finishing this post in c/indigenous has really got me thinking thoughts