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First he purged rightist employees (even his friends) working at Current Affairs to consolidate an editorial line under his leadership, now he reposts in support of Dengist developmentalism.

The libertarian socialist to Leninist pipeline is real.

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[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 40 points 1 day ago

The entire US is also basically at zero for HSR.

High-speed rail in the United States

The New York Times and Al Jazeera [do] not consider the United States to have any high-speed rail.

There are a few snippets on the page that are like this.

Amtrak's Acela, operating between Washington, DC and Boston, MA, is North America's fastest high-speed rail service, reaching 150–160 mph (240–260 km/h) on a total of 50 miles (80 km) of track along the Northeast Corridor. Between Washington, DC and New York City, the Acela operates at an average speed of 82 mph (132 km/h). NextGen Acela reaches top speeds of 160 mph (255 km/h) on 35 miles (56 km) of its 457-mile (735 km) route.

[-] regul@hexbear.net 35 points 1 day ago

Morocco has more HSR than the entire US. It took them 6 years to build 220 miles of track (2012-2018). CA HSR construction began in 2015 and not a single sleeper has been laid, to say nothing of track.

[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If California were to exist billions of years from now - when the sun goes ~~nova~~ red giant - the democrats will say they have a "proposal to start work to make high-speed rail a reality". But not quite yet. First - they need to form a committee to...

Ninja edit. Oops.

[-] PKMKII@hexbear.net 19 points 1 day ago

By comparison, the Shinkansen has a regular operating speed of 200 mph/322 kmh

[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 20 points 1 day ago

And it's more than 60 years old.

The first line, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, opened shortly before the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, the 552.6-kilometre (343.4 mi) route connects Tōkyō, Yokohama, Nagoya, and Ōsaka, the four largest cities in Japan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkansen

I'd love to know typical 1960s and 1970s and 1980s predictions about when the US would have ~500 km of HSR. Could the US will get there by '64? 2164 I mean. I think I'm being way too optimistic for Hexbear.

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net -1 points 1 day ago

I don't think the USA will ever have a significant amount of high speed rail. Firstly because of how dispersed the population is - HSR is uncommonly effective in Japan because the geography supports is, you can have just a few long main lines to get to most places. America would be a much taller order. More importantly though because the people calling the shots are wealthy assholes who can just hop on their chopper/jet, why would they bother with high speed rail?

[-] facow@hexbear.net 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

There are plenty of places in the US that high speed rail would make sense. Even in places you wouldn't expect it. A bunch of regional airports pretty much just shuttle to nearby hubs and would be way more convenient for people if it was just a train. Take CLT to GSP or GSO. SBA to LAS. High speed rail would make a lot of sense there even if they're low density suburbs like the first example.

At least in fantasy land where it doesn't cost $1T worth of graft to build anything in this godforsaken country sadness-abysmal

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago

I'm more pointing out that the geography based argument is easier to dupe people with in the USA. The central point is that the capitalists don't want HSR, and are happy to use geography as a scapegoat, and frankly if the American public become so well educated as to reject that idea, they're likely to go straight to revolution. High speed rail would be an unalloyed good for the US working class, which is the #1 reason it's not happening without some serious social reorganisation.

[-] HarryLime@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I don't think the USA will ever have a significant amount of high speed rail. Firstly because of how dispersed the population is - HSR is uncommonly effective in Japan because the geography supports is, you can have just a few long main lines to get to most places. America would be a much taller order.

Tired, terrible arguments. You should educate yourself more on this issue.

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago

I'm well aware that the geography based argument against HSR is disingenuous. It's also convincing to the general public because the way the American population is distributed is quite homogenous, so it's easier for the democrats and republicans to sell the idea that it won't work. HSR would be a great good to the American working class, but not having it better serves the interests of capital. As long as America remains a liberal democracy, this is likely to remain the case. Hopefully, the territory currently called the United States of America will get high speed rail eventually! I want them to and believe it will be an unalloyed good. But I will eat my hat if it happens without first achieving socialism, or at the very least removing the current neoliberal ruling class (which means both major parties would need to go at the very least), which even without a name change would effectively mean the USA no longer exists.

[-] mar_k@hexbear.net 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

the United States Department of Transportation defines high-speed rail as trains with a top speed of 110 mph (177 km/h) and above

Lmfao. The EU and China define it as >155 mph

[-] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 17 points 1 day ago

Guess who benefits most from that particular stretch of actual speed? The ~~professional liars~~ politicians in Washington, to no surprise.

[-] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 9 points 1 day ago

That's because politicians prefer lines of coke to lines of speed.

this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2026
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