Dutch railways: "oh no, it has snowed, we can't have a fully functioning schedule now"Canadian trains: TOOT TOOT

@collectifission

It's underfunded and should improve. And people love to shit at it. But just like the Dutch system it's still a functional (there's almost always a quick next train if you miss a connection) and extremely dense* system if you just want to use it.

*going to the size of towns that in countries like France, Denmark and Italy one would have to take a bus or rental car to.

@sternwarte

Anyway. Just to stay within the theme: it's not always great

https://mastodon.online/@Pepijn/114648409161447822

https://mastodon.online/@Pepijn/115246601270441019

@collectifission @sternwarte

@collectifission that's more of a TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT

@collectifission Dune part 3

@collectifission British Trains: one leaf of the "wrong type" lands near an embankment in Derby - No trains for 5 days

@collectifission Love everthing about this post!

@collectifission letsGOOOOOOOO

@collectifission Norwegian trains are in both categories there.

It is a bit of a difference between the trains that do the mountain crossing, and the ones that operate local traffic in the Oslo area.

This week is going to be so much fun. We have had -20c. Now, we are going to get a week with LOADS of snow. Then it will be +1c. If it drops below freezing again, that is a lot of fun for the track switch points.

Another issue is that we apparently don't have enough "melding stations" for trains to get rid of the compacted snow under them.

Snow and low temps have not been much issue, this "really fun" warmer winters with temps going up and down around the freezing point is a nightmare

@lettosprey Yeah, it's the "0º winter" that is causing most problems as I understand. It's 6º now here in the Netherlands, so trains are driving again, for now

@collectifission@greennuclear.online
Must be pretty unsettling to ride while not seeing anything apart from WHITE

@collectifission I guess you're more ready if snow's common, but gonna post a gentle snow discussion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzjejXOUwxM

@collectifission Yah, snow get wet & heavy when it is above 0c, causing more of the "compacting under train" issues we have battled here. Then when it drops below 0c again, the water freezing does fun thing to whatever it got into. Track switch points have really suffered, and there are more of those in city areas...

We have also had a lot more rock slides lately because of water expanding and contracting around -/+0c. Highway near me was closed a long time last winter as massive rocks fell onto it. The "fun effects" of climate change

@collectifission we kunnen hier helemaal niks meer.

@collectifission also good no grandmother with her dog is waiting to cross the railway in Canada

@collectifission wow.
Impressive.
German trains can Not do this. Why? Cost reduction and fear, i guess.

@reinierl @VoxClamans @collectifission Yes, that is what I understood from this video from @notjustbikes about Canadian rail.

And that passenger trains are running on the tracks owned by the cargo train company. Cargo gets priority. The train we see here is also a cargo train.

And that as a passenger you have to 'check in' asif you are boarding a train. Ridiculous.

See https://youtu.be/n1G0Lyh3uik for example. Enjoy.

@rrustema020 Yeah, Canadian rail is all kinds of bad, barely standing above the absolute crap that is Amtrak in the US.

But at least they can blast through snow

@reinierl @VoxClamans @notjustbikes

@collectifission
Germany: We didn't put trains out at all and none got stuck in the open. Isn't that a success!?

@collectifission Canadian here - that train is hauling freight. From my limited experience as a passenger here, freight rules the rails. Our cross-Canada trip was 3 days late because we kept having to sit on laybys waiting for a freight train to rip by us at high speed. It might be worth looking at how many freight derailments happen here in Canada relative to elsewhere. In BC, annually it seems, there are usually a few significant ones.

@collectifission Canadian Trains? Careful what you wish for. There are just 3 trains a week between Halifax (population 500,000) and anywhere. The passenger carriages will soon be replaced with carriages built in the 1950's, and ViaRail proudly called that an "upgrade".