THE VIDEO SHELF · us passenger rail
Why Trains Suck in America
Wendover Productions explains why US passenger rail lags behind other countries. It covers freight companies owning most of the track, geography and population density, and the economics of competing with flying.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN recommends it as a short, solid walkthrough of why American trains are slow and limited, most notably because freight gets priority.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Wendover Productions
- Topic
- us passenger rail
- Format
- explainer
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 6
- HN mentions in dataset
- 8
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2017–2022
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
High speed passenger rail doesn't work in the US because freight is prioritized over moving people. That's the short version at least. I found this video to be a pretty good walkthrough - [VIDEO]
teej on Hacker News · 2017-04
In Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removalThey have trains but all track is owned by freight train providers. Here's a good overview why. [VIDEO]
sunir on Hacker News · 2017-07
In What it’s like to ship yourself overnight on Cabin’s sleep pod busWendover Productions has a good video that explains this and many other reasons why trains suck in the US [VIDEO] Spoiler: freight companies own most of the track
trimbo on Hacker News · 2018-04
In Want airline food? Take Amtrak
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.