Public transport

Canada Pacific Line: "Buncha pussies!"

@Hinoron *Inhale* BOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

@Hinoron That looks like that one track from mario kart

@Hinoron https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxgfFwEZjes 4:43

@Hinoron An infestation covering the tracks at Clarkson Station in WA, was cited as a possible reason why a passenger train failed to stop and crash into the back of another train. The theory goes that the millipedes were crushed by the trains, and the ooze they left behind made the tracks super slippery. That’s Australia for you. Good on Canada though

The German railway, on the other hand, has only five problems: Spring, summer, autumn, winter and customers.

@DerDings In France, we have a sixth problem : the railway workers

@DerDings

What, you mean its run without any managers?? ;)

@stevep59
Well, it doesn't run well _with_ them, so why not try without them?

@DerDings

Almost certainly an improvement. ;)

@DerDings Same in the Netherlands.

In Belgium, when the train you want to catch seems to arrive 5 minutes early, it's only because it's 55 minutes late.

I loved Belgium, but it's about thirty years behind its neighbors when it comes to the trains. The ticket machine took my money but didn't give me a ticket, there's no wifi, and what should have been a three hour trip took almost six because of late trains (it wasn't even raining that hard), sudden track changes, and having to take a local train to a different hub.

@marared
Lol... and I'm so sad for your experience, I really am. If the Belgian railways charged by the time spent on its trains rather than on the distance of the journey, they'd make a fortune.
I'm a binational Belgian-Luxemburger and I once took the train for a normally 2-hour journey, without changes, just from Brussels to some station in the south and it took... tadaaa... 7 hours. Our train broke down, the replacement locomotive broke down too, we saw other trains pass us without stopping to transfer passengers. Even the "train driver" told how hopeless he was. It was really great fun in the carriage.
As for Wales, I have some very fond memories of steam trains in the north of Wales. I didn't do them all but quite a lot. I do wish you keep them in working order. They are a treasure to cherish.

Yeah, we need someone who can make the trains run on time!

...oh, wait...

@Avonidas Fun fact: Mussolini didn't really get the trains to run on time. He instead just quelled all reports that they didn't with wanton and brutal violence. Much easier.

@Wickedragon Oh, I thought it was "make the trains run on thyme."

Yeah, that makes more sense. ;)

I learned recently that sting-less bees live in Australia.

Australia, the land where even the trees try to murder you, has fucking sting-less bees. How's that for irony?

@Sorflakne Hey now! Our trees don't *actively* try to murder you. They're just impregnated with highly volatile and flammable oils that cause the air to explode into fireballs during bushfires. How is that murder?

But yeah, the native stingless bees are cool. Our yard is alive with them at the moment - we're coming into autumn and they're all stocking up for winter. We also have a hive of feral honey bees in a split tree, any number of juvenile black skinks, at least one bandicoot, and a family of critically endangered Western Ring Tail Possums. Our yard is a busy place.

@Cowgirl I know some biology students who want to spend a couple of weeks in your yard as part of their master's. Sounds like an 'A' in the making.

@Sorflakne don't worry, we fixed that little oversight by bringing over more aggressive species, like African Killer Bees. because we couldn't not

Coming from America, I'm jealous you guys have good public rail lines at all.

@Dzubur https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/ yep as a whole, the US scores a D+ in infrastructure

@Dzubur
Well, not everywhere, and not all the time. Northern Scandinavia, especially Sweden and Norway, for example, have a rather weird, largely non-electrified rail network. Most of Europe has at least decent rails, though, especially Germany and France.

@Dzubur I'm not sure many people would call the UK rail network "good"

@weelydangle
In comparison to the vast majority of America's remaining passenger rail, it's well beyond good. Amtrak does a decent job in the Boston to Washington, D.C. corridor (which accounts for 37% of their riders and most of their profits), but the rest sucks. Subways and inter-city rail in some cities can be good, but most of our long-distance routes are awful.

@weelydangle

It has serious problems because the government and hence often the public favour the car. Because they insist that the rail network pays for itself its lacking in funds and very expensive, hence commuters especially have to pay through the nose for crowded trains and irregular trains. In most of Europe governments recognise its also a social service that greatly helps the rest of economy so their willing to fund it properly and the conditions are a lot better.

@stevep59 On the lines into London, it's pretty much at the point that new investment won't have any effect, unless they're willing to knock peoples houses down to put in new lines, as the current ones are at or near capacity.

HS2 will help increase local capacity into Euston but I suspect, given that it's taken over 20 years to get permission to build that line, we're not going to see anything else soon.

@FoolInOrange

May be so although investment in better trains will help. [Glad to say I'm not a commutator]

I think the main purpose of HS2 is to slightly reduce the time it take for people from the north to get to London - or probably more for certain companies to get a lot of work. What the country really needs are better links between areas outside London to increase economic potential elsewhere. Which is probably the best option in terms of reducing the centralisation of the British economy on London but of course since so much power and influence is concentrated in London that is going to face opposition.

@Dzubur To be fair it's more cost effective to make decent rail lines in more densely populated areas of the world.

Leaves, the true horror of English society today...

We had a new one a few years back: sunlight. Apparently too much sun on the tracks made the rails expand in a way that mean trains had problems.

I'm beginning to feel there's a future in having all railways underground, all the time. Although earthquakes....

In Romania trains manage to get lost on the tracks, and therefor arrive late.

@dlaV
How does that even happen?

@Sisu seems i failed at sarcasm

@dlaV
I must've been asleep when i asked

@dlaV
You may be joking, but this actually happened recently in the UK:
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/train-gets-lost-in-yorkshire-after-it-goes-the-wrong-way-1-9182229

Australia.... everyday proving how resistent human-kind can be