• DupaCycki@lemmy.world
    5·
    4 hours ago

    It’s kind of insane how vast the world, and everything humans have built on it so far is.

    Take those ~1800 trains running simultaneously in the middle of the day in Germany. Each one weighs like dozens of tons and carries up to hundreds of passengers.

    Now multiply that several times for all the trains running simultaneously in the middle of the day in all of Europe.

    Then look at countries like Russia or China that completely dwarf Europe when it comes to [actively used] rail networks.

    The US alone has 220 thousand kilometers of railroads. That’s more than half of the distance from Earth to the Moon. Add China’s 160 thousand and it’d be enough to take a train all the way to the Moon.

    And this is only trains.

    Maybe it’s just me, but… where did all of that come from? Absolutely stunning.

    • Holla@feddit.orgEnglish
      2·
      53 minutes ago

      It’s not even a question; they were not.

      E: I mean maybe some were, like at the start of their journey or after a Pofalla-Wende

  • Mucki@feddit.orgEnglish
    1·
    4 hours ago

    Do i get this right: It’s just the straight lines between start and destination station and not the actual physical routes?

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
        6·
        5 hours ago

        That’s like 30% of the problem. Russia has trains everywhere. The rest is just that Henry Ford set up his factories along the border, and we’ve leaned hard into car-centric development ever since. (Well, actually, we might be turning a corner now, but it’s slow)

    • similideano@piefed.socialEnglish
      5·
      7 hours ago

      I still take Via Rail whenever I have to go to Toronto, Ottawa or Quebec from Montreal, and it’s so convenient and relaxing to go from home to somewhere in another city entirely by rail the whole way. Especially compared to the circus that is flying today. But why does it have to be so dogdamn slooooow. And I wish there were more than a couple viable destinations for someone who doesn’t want to drive everywhere.

  • nightlily@leminal.spaceEnglish
    1·
    4 hours ago

    You can kind of see how much of a choke point Cologne is there. The line between it and Düsseldorf is in the middle of a major upgrade as well which adds to the chaos. 30 years of neoliberal underinvestment coming home to roost.

  • MrNesser@lemmy.world
    41·
    12 hours ago

    I’d love a series of live versions of this and other countries that I can make my background