• rhombus@sh.itjust.works
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    23 hours ago

    Right, because it’s totally feasible to run a personal rail line to every home in a rural community. Taxpayers will happily pay for miles of rail so one family can get to town.

    • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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      15 hours ago

      It was totally feasible to run a rail line to every single grain elevator in every rural community. It was infeasible NOT to. If you can’t get to your local agricultural distribution infrastructure, you can’t do agriculture in the first place. So yeah, why can’t rural communities all be served by trains?

      • rhombus@sh.itjust.works
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        11 hours ago

        There isn’t a grain elevator on every farm, farmers transport grain to them on trucks. So yeah, passenger rail as frequent as grain elevators would be great. Still need cars to get there.

    • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      13 hours ago
      1. Cheaper than asphalt roads in most climates. If you actually have a reason to live out there, like a farm, you’ll likely appreciate the freight capacity!

      I know, car brains who ‘live rural’ haven’t heard of agriculture before, but, i assure you; it does fucking exist!

      1. Trains are the only thing that exists besides cars. Maybe we shouldn’t, maybe car brains should all just get the fucking wall, but there are plenty of options.

      2. Rural communities did not exist before cars.

      • rhombus@sh.itjust.works
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        11 hours ago

        If you actually have a reason to live out there, like a farm

        maybe car brains should all just get the fucking wall

        I’m not going to bother here.

    • Gold_E_Lox@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      23 hours ago

      they already pay for miles of road… which need constant upkeep… and in turn produce tons of micro plastics and smog and noise…

      people can walk too, to a station. walking is good for you and would improve population health.

      • rhombus@sh.itjust.works
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        22 hours ago

        And people drive themselves on those roads. You need to hire people to run and maintain the trains.

        How far do you expect people to walk? The rural parts of my state have an average of less than 10 people per square mile. Is the train stopping every mile or two? Not terribly efficient. Trains between and around population centers would be great, but expecting rural people to fully ditch cars is just completely infeasible.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          Yeah, I think people over and underestimate the value of rural public transit. The underestimating is that people vastly overestimate rurality. Small cities whose residents think of themselves as rural often would benefit from public transit, though trams may be a better option.

          But the fucking boonies, places that never had a train or tram but they used to just have horses, those places benefit from personal vehicles. I wish those places would recognize that they’re a small minority of the population and infrastructure shouldn’t prioritize their ability to not take transit once they get into the city, but they do need accommodation

          • snooggums@lemmy.world
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            17 hours ago

            I love taking public transport in the cities! So much more convenient than even cabs the vast, vast majority of time.