26
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
26 points (84.2% liked)
Mildly Interesting
22276 readers
256 users here now
This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.
This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?
Just post some stuff and don't spam.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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.