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Maybe Our Railroads Need Some Robber Barons - Is Florida’s Brightline a remedy for our ailing rail system?
(commonplace.substack.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
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Yeah, definitely need to run some more high speed rail through the middle of towns that don't have the safety guards to handle it.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article308679915.html
Edit for the people who still think Brightline is fine:
The only death rate on trains I care about is deaths from the train crashing/malfunctions/etc. You know.. Things the train/train operator are actually, legitimately responsible for.
People being fucking stupid and going around barriers and getting hit and killed should not be held against trains.
Trains are not hiding in a bush waiting to jump out and get you when you least expect it. They are enormous fucking things, stuck to rails, and the only way they are gonna get you is if you are a momentously self centered idiot (you know, you're average american) that tries to put yourself in a place where common sense and barriers tell you not to.
Then again, it doesnt matter to anti-mass transit propagandists who love to seize upon any opportunity to say "THIS IS TOO DANGEROUS/EXPENSIVE/UNAMERICAN, WE NEED MORE ROADS AND CARS INSTEAD"
I think developing high speed rail lines in the US is still a good thing. The US is severely lacking and behind other countries in that regard.
What I'm gathering from the article is this:
Florida regulations stupidly ban train horns in many places where they should be. Doesn't seem like the fight of high speed rail itself, but rather the regional government.
High speed rail lines are supposed to have fences around the tracks I guess so pedestrians can't cross away from crossings?? That seems to be the biggest issue that I gathered from the article.
So am I reading that correctly? Seems as though these issues are supposed to be addressed by the government.
I wouldn't say a lack of safety guards nor the train itself is to blame in this instance.
Nope, the issue 99.99% of the time is, and will always be, stupid entitled assholes.
Thankfully its a self correcting problem, since their population will slowly diminish and, perhaps with luck, one day go extinct.
Yeah, seriously, what a moron.
But I guess in the article most deaths are from pedestrians crossing the tracks in areas away from street/pedestrian crossings. Still not necessarily a smart move, but I guess people are not realizing how fast the high speed rail trains go vs regular trains.
Do you even know how many people are killed by cars each year? This is nothing compared to that. Most cases cited here are because people acted completely recklessly. The same can't be said about many car accidents.
Do you know how many people were killed in car crashes before seat belts were introduced? Before crash testing was done?
Saying you shouldn't bother to make the highest death rate percentage rail operator be more safe because people will still find another way to die....
I'm not saying it shouldn't be safer. I would much rather see Amtrak there, in large part because of their safety record. What I'm saying is that Bright line is still safer than cars. So yes, ensure Bright line increases its safety standards, but it's not a reason to argue against expansion of the Brightline network (unless, for instance, you want to argue for Amtrak expansion instead - then I would be on board), as it still is shifting people from a more dangerous to a safer mode of transit, even if there is plenty of room for improvement in that safer mode of transit.
I was going to say, of all places, Florida has got some of the worst geography and city planning for this type of project.