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Phoon posted:Our trains are already privatised and its poo poo so I dont think libertarians want to draw attention to that here. I have never seen or heard of a real passenger train line, connecting cities, in the US. Apart from city subway type deals I think the only American passenger trains are for tours of scenic mountains. I havent read into it though, so I might be totally wrong.
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Jul 4, 2014 13:24
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Phoon posted:What is the deal with trains in the us are they private? National? Or is it a region by region thing? Freight railroads are private. Inter-city passenger trains are national. Commuter trains are a mix of state, municipal, and (rarely) private ownership.
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Jul 4, 2014 13:31
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Exclamation Marx posted:weird, they're all about the roads over here wasn't rail in NZ one of the few examples of something that's been de-privatised? Like privatisation made it really shithouse so they changed it back or something.
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Jul 4, 2014 14:01
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tentative8e8op posted:I have never seen or heard of a real passenger train line, connecting cities, in the US. Apart from city subway type deals I think the only American passenger trains are for tours of scenic mountains. I havent read into it though, so I might be totally wrong. Yeah this is totally wrong. Amtrak connects major cities across at least the Eastern seaboard; there are smaller regional train systems allowing you to get around certain smaller cities/towns in a given area; they use the same stations as Amtrak for easy transfers from one to the other. That's how it works on the coasts, anyway; the Midwest is more complicated because they have more area to cover and fewer major cities which people have less reason to travel between. e: to clarify I have no idea how trains work outside the coastal areas but I imagine it's harder to do right there based on conjecture
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Jul 4, 2014 14:05
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R. Mute posted:rail travel does own a whole bunch. read this as "ravel does own", agreed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=126a3mp9v0E (rail travel also owns, Cascades amtrak all day every day)
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Jul 4, 2014 14:17
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tbp posted:I loving hate Pitbull 
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Jul 4, 2014 14:21
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Joementum posted:Rumor on the twitters is that this is from a new leaker. Big, if true. Greenwald had a tweet ages ago saying there was a second leaker. At least I think it was Greenwald, it may have been Appelbaum.
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Jul 4, 2014 14:38
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American freight railroads have been privately owned and operated for their entire history, but passenger rail was nationalized in 1971 by President Nixon because of the competitive pressures on it from interstate highways and air travel.
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Jul 4, 2014 14:55
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The original song is generally much better, to be honest. Mickey and Sylvia: Love Is Strange https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCvcZhX7oxk Pitbull: Back in Time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaSZE194D4I
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Jul 4, 2014 14:57
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I found a sub-saharan Africa thread and a South Africa thread. Are there any north Africa threads?
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Jul 4, 2014 15:07
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Vladimir Poutine posted:wasn't rail in NZ one of the few examples of something that's been de-privatised? Like privatisation made it really shithouse so they changed it back or something. they nationalised air nz and rail (kiwirail) in the early 2000s. it's still not great, there's an endless thing of "we aren't getting enough passengers" -> "better raise fares" at least where i live, and i'm not sure how much better or worse they were before 2008. rail and public transport in general has been neglected recently, with lovely stuff like buying asbestos-riddled trains from china because they're cheap. the current government is all roads roads roads tho, upgrading sections of highway (roads of national significance  ) to fail at dealing with congestion and save a couple of minutes at a low bcr.
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Jul 4, 2014 15:25
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N. Senada posted:I found a sub-saharan Africa thread and a South Africa thread. Are there any north Africa threads? Based on its OP I'm pretty sure that falls under the purview of the Middle East thread.
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Jul 4, 2014 15:27
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Thanks, I'll check there.
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Jul 4, 2014 15:30
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loquacius posted:Yeah this is totally wrong. Amtrak connects major cities across at least the Eastern seaboard; there are smaller regional train systems allowing you to get around certain smaller cities/towns in a given area; they use the same stations as Amtrak for easy transfers from one to the other. That's how it works on the coasts, anyway; the Midwest is more complicated because they have more area to cover and fewer major cities which people have less reason to travel between. I want to ride the Chicago–Seattle route, I bet it's incredibly scenic. 
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Jul 4, 2014 15:37
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I used to ride the train up to university every spring and fall. Amtrak is kind of terrible, because they're always, always late, but it's sometimes fun to relax and see the scenery go by, and not have to worry about driving.
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Jul 4, 2014 15:42
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I commute by train so I spend a lot of time on them. Its way better than driving if you bring something to read but it can get pretty boring otherwise, especially when your train goes through rural areas and you lose phone signal Sometimes I see deer and foxes and such from the train though thats pretty cool
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Jul 4, 2014 15:47
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Amtrak, despite being publicly funded and owned by the US federal government, is supposed to be a self-sustaining for-profit corporation. It also uses the same tracks as the freight rail in much of the US except the Northeast corridor and the freight legally has the right if way, which is why it's passenger service is perpetually slow and late. America's rail system has always been hosed by our regionalism. The transcontinental railway bill had to wait to be passed until 1862 because the antebellum Congress couldn't agree on whether Chicago or St. Louis would be the primary hub city.
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Jul 4, 2014 15:54
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Kiwi Ghost Chips posted:I want to ride the Chicago–Seattle route, I bet it's incredibly scenic. The New Orleans-Jacksonville route on the bottom there is inactive. Sections of the track were damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and they decided to just discontinue use instead of repair.
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Jul 4, 2014 15:56
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Joementum posted:Amtrak, despite being publicly funded and owned by the US federal government, is supposed to be a self-sustaining for-profit corporation. It also uses the same tracks as the freight rail in much of the US except the Northeast corridor and the freight legally has the right if way, which is why it's passenger service is perpetually slow and late.
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Jul 4, 2014 16:01
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Canada's hosed in the same way, having to share tracks, although recent changes means that - at least in my experience - you spend less time sitting on the train on the side track for 45 minutes halfway through your journey, waiting for freight to come through because they always have priority. It's too bad that Amtrak is screwed to the point where the connections they offer are roundabout or just inefficient. I took the train from Montreal to NYC and it was really cheap! There was plenty of legroom, it was relaxed, and I swear to God our conductor was actually name Albert Weskar. But it was also 11 hours because of a 2 hour stop in Albany. I don't think most people travelling to NYC from Montreal want to stop in Albany, they just want to get to NYC! But that's how it worked. They also had a train to Boston that took 5 hours which isn't too bad, but that got cancelled, and there's no direct bus service so you have to catch a ride with someone or rent a car which is really weird. I mean Amtrak advertises these trains as scenic routes, which they are, but I feel as if we could make the economics of downtown to downtown rail service work, people would be on board (har har). In an ideal world Obama and Harper would come on and say my fellow north americans, we have just outlawed slow trains, we begin building high speed rail in five minutes, but it always seems like we're 5 years away from it.
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Jul 4, 2014 16:01
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ufarn posted:Would Amtrak have been in charge of the NY-NJ route Christie axed? Probably not; there are already a few ways to take trains between NY and NJ (eg NJTransit and PATH) and none of them are run by Amtrak. That kind of thing is a little small-time for Amtrak. e: Also yeah I can say from experience that Amtrak is the best way to get between Boston and NYC unless you have a specific reason to drive it
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Jul 4, 2014 16:04
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:I guess the "milquetoast centrist" flavour of liberal would fit well in the LibDems. And yeah, if Obama were Canadian or British, what are the odds that he'd be a Tory? He'd be New Labour (not that there is much of a difference) loquacius posted:e: Also yeah I can say from experience that Amtrak is the best way to get between Boston and NYC unless you have a specific reason to drive it Yup, this goes for the entire Northeast Corridor (which I think is Boston to DC)
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Jul 4, 2014 16:33
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I pretty much ride the train constantly, because I don't have a driver's license (yeah, yeah) and my bike will only take me so far. Delays are also quite common here and people bitch about it endlessly. It's extra frustrating because those delays are used by the right (those drat liberals) to push liberalisation of the railways. Because, y'know, not only is competition in the passenger rail system possible (it's not), it will also magically make the delays disappear because the free market doesn't let itself be inhibited by things like reality. The actual main cause of the delays isn't the lack of free market magic, but a problem we share with the British - our rail system's old and a lot of the lines were built with no expansion in mind. So this means that arguably the most important line of the country goes straight through the capital (fair enough), but that this means it has to pass Brussels Central, a station with four (4) tracks. Creating a huge bottleneck because even the slightest error anywhere will cause chaos all over the country. Nobody wants to expand Brussels Central, however, because it's in, y'know, the centre of Brussels. I'm a real big fan of trains (not in the autistic way, just in general) and it's in fact the EU's policy on railways that's the focal point of my opposition to it. The EU has been relentlessly pushing liberalisation of the railways (and of everything else), which led to us splitting up our admittedly imperfect national railway company into three separate bits (freight, passenger, infrastructure). We've since pushed that back to two because that split was just plain dumb, but it's still having the desired effect of creating a structural deficit for the passenger part - which was normally compensated by the more lucrative freight section. And it of course also creates general inefficiency. So, in ten years or so, liberals will point at that deficit and say 'oh look at that. i bet it could use some FREE MARKET and also the eu says we have to sooooo' and i will burn this country down.
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Jul 4, 2014 16:40
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Do people really develop their understanding of how railways function from Sid Meier's Railroads!?
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Jul 4, 2014 16:47
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N. Senada posted:Do people really develop their understanding of how railways function from Sid Meier's Railroads!? I got mine from Ticket to Ride, thank you very much.
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Jul 4, 2014 16:48
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Railroad Tycoon 3 for me. Best railroad game ever.
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Jul 4, 2014 16:51
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BernieLomax posted:Often it is literally the socially liberal/fiscal conservative type. so then you have their social policies and most of them are liberal in the traditional political liberalism tradition. they were a large force behind the legalisation of abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia, for instance. but then you get things like - say - immigration, where they're violently lunging towards the right as much as possible because they know there's a large overlap between fiscally conservatives and idiot bigots. and also because we're a very racist country in general. so you've got a liberal minister for immigration that's literally committing human rights abuses but that's all part of their party platform. or you look at their stance on climate change. that's even more bizarre. they don't deny it like a republican would, but they do buck whenever anything is done about it that would even slightly inconvenience any business anywhere. but they also think climate change is a huge problem. all in all, there's consistency there. hurray for big business and hail Mammon, combined with a healthy dose of pandering. but it doesn't really fit into the traditional political spectrum any more. i think we should simplify the traditional spectrum and just have a category that says 'wrong' and one that says 'Correct' and the liberals would be in the 'wrong' bit, obviously.
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Jul 4, 2014 16:55
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There are no longer even any staff at the station I go to after about 4pm despite it being an end of line station and a huge tourist destination + they keep cancelling trains due to staff shortages Also they lock all the toilets when the staff leave One time a train went to the wrong platform and because there was no staff the system announced that it was a different train and all the tourists got on it and went to the wrong place.
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Jul 4, 2014 16:57
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Aside from the Acela high speed rail that connects NYC and DC, Amtrak is slow and expensive. However, Vox dot com content editor Max Fischer had a twitter meltdown last night because his train had to stop due to the hurricane, so I wholeheartedly support and love Amtrak now. also is it more lf to support france or germany in the world cup please help me d&d
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Jul 4, 2014 17:11
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Germany, duh.
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Jul 4, 2014 17:15
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Dreylad posted:I mean Amtrak advertises these trains as scenic routes, which they are, but I feel as if we could make the economics of downtown to downtown rail service work, people would be on board (har har). In an ideal world Obama and Harper would come on and say my fellow north americans, we have just outlawed slow trains, we begin building high speed rail in five minutes, but it always seems like we're 5 years away from it. This was great 
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Jul 4, 2014 17:45
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Swan Oat posted:also is it more lf to support france or germany in the world cup please help me d&d Both are capitalist pigs, you are traitor to the cause.
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Jul 4, 2014 17:57
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So uhh how do people feel with Saba Ahmed? Also Germany won the match. Onwards to Brazil V Columbia!
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Jul 4, 2014 18:52
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Would have been so awesome if that last shot from France had made it.
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Jul 4, 2014 18:56
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it would've been awesome if benzema had been nowhere near the pitch today too
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Jul 4, 2014 18:57
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Is it random to say "eat poo poo Le Pen" after what just happened?
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Jul 4, 2014 18:59
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:Is it random to say "eat poo poo Le Pen" after what just happened? I think that's allowed in any context.
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Jul 4, 2014 19:00
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:Is it random to say "eat poo poo Le Pen" after what just happened? te faire encule le pen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7rhMqTQ4WI
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Jul 4, 2014 19:06
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 Really hope Brazil wins so the Germany vs Brazil match is just one long Boys From Brazil joke.
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Jul 4, 2014 19:09
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Amtrak is supposed to have priority on the freight rails. Unfortunately, the fines that the FRA can dole out are so tiny that the freights can write it off as a cost of doing business.
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Jul 4, 2014 21:12
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Tater Love 