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AudibleNod t1_j9gp2wa wrote

In case anyone is starting to wonder how common this actually is.

Here's the DOT accident map.

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npipi t1_j9guikd wrote

Wow! Quite a few injuries not to mention millions of dollars in damages.

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VerticalYea t1_j9hnwx7 wrote

Yes, but think of the money we're saving!

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SheriffComey t1_j9hpyjl wrote

Has anyone checked with the shareholders to see how they're holding up?

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VerticalYea t1_j9hryo7 wrote

I'm just worried about how they will have to decide on which pool to downsize at which vacation house they are building.

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AromaticSalts1990 t1_j9h4jgp wrote

yup. exactly. i worked on the railroad for years, and the number of train derailments that nobody hears about is astounding

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StoriesSoReal t1_j9gvakx wrote

I think it's normal for everyday people to freak out about something like this after the disaster that East Palestine is. The overreporting of every train derailment is definitely driving anxiety for people imo. This particular line in Nebraska is owned by the UP and is a main thoroughfare for coal from the powder river basin going East. Coal cars weigh A LOT. We're talking 140 tons per car and a lot of trains are now 120 cars long depending on if the utility they are going to can handle it. That is a lot of wear and tear on any steel track. It's especially hard on them when there is something like a stuck brake or a flat wheel.

There are places in Wyoming and Nebraska that have huge, seemingly random, turn around spots next to railroad tracks where they have buried coal from derailments that are paved over. Definitely not within EPA clean-up standards. Most people are none the wiser about it.

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VerticalYea t1_j9ho18u wrote

You have convinced me. We should stop moving coal immediately. Leave it where it is.

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Dara84 t1_j9itdra wrote

Also people need to understand that there is a big difference between 30 hazardous material cars flying off the rails near a town and 1 log car having 1 set of wheels "unseated" from the rails. Both of these events would be called derailments.

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ObiWanCanownme t1_j9gvtxm wrote

Wait until they learn how common car accidents are.

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KerPop42 t1_j9gwwij wrote

Like comparing diabetes deaths to heart attacks

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dfsaqwe t1_j9gy4cf wrote

i see the DOT is already coloring the red states, red

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VegasKL t1_j9hqt7f wrote

Is this real-time derailments?

Jk. But given the past few weeks, it might as well be.

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Rizla_TCG t1_j9icapd wrote

Almost every death category is "miscellaneous."

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Megaloman71 t1_j9gt1tw wrote

I'm sure the people who voted for zero government will demand the government do something about this.

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ursixx t1_j9gw8zz wrote

Whew not Göteborg/Gothenburg..

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CapitalLongjumping t1_j9h392q wrote

Same as the Palestine and Moscow stuff! Please USA, find your own names! ;)

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RPDRNick t1_j9hlyzx wrote

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam.

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AceJZ t1_j9hoh2s wrote

Oh great now it's stuck in my head again.

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Sons_of_biscuits t1_j9hyr62 wrote

Why they changed it, I can’t say. People just liked it better that way

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mina-ami t1_j9hkvcc wrote

Don't worry, they're pronounced completely different most of the time!

Here in Illinois we've got

Athens (Aye-thins)

Milan (my-lan)

Cairo (K-row)

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MarchionessofMayhem t1_j9hzbbb wrote

Kentucky has Versailles(Ver-sales), London, Paris, Glasgow, Brandenburg, Frankfort (sic), Somerset, and. Winchester. For funsies we have Monkey's Eyebrow, Rabbit Hash,Tyewhoppety, and Beaver Dam.

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Kiyuri t1_j9irjw2 wrote

Speaking of funsies, I've always enjoyed the native American names used for places. Take New York State for example: Cheektowaga, Owego, Oswego, Ostego, Poughkeepsie, Wawayanda, Poospatuck, Chautauqua, etc. They're distinct from any European place names AND fun to say! Also, bonus points if you can pronounce them right.

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ForThePantz t1_j9ik5sq wrote

You forgot San Jose (San Joes - not kidding… and not that far from Athens actually).

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wasdlmb t1_j9iix03 wrote

We did. Those are our names now, motherfuckers. Why go to smelly Paris France when you can go to the cultural center of the world, Paris Texas!

(for those of you not in Texas, there is absolutely nothing in Paris TX. We also never refer to it as just "Paris" because even in our state it's completely irrelevant)

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GuntherSpiermen t1_j9hm888 wrote

I'm from the USA, been here my whole life, and this shit really fucking confuses me. Until scrolling down I assumed the article was about Sweden... even the article itself doesn't specify.

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spacegamer2000 t1_j9gqt1y wrote

what if we like, had better train tracks?

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Plaineswalker t1_j9gvj9y wrote

You would ask that you godamned commie.

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6FartMouth9 t1_j9gxgzk wrote

It is communism. People don't want to pay for the shipping needed for these trains much less the rail. If the people of Ohio wanted good rail maybe they could have bought a subscription to a rail repair service instead of waiting for the government (look howwell that worked) to fix it.

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Megaloman71 t1_j9gyl01 wrote

The government doesn't own rail lines or the land they're on. What the government CAN do is regulate the railroads, but the people accusing Biden of not immediately sending the GDP to Ohio also voted for people who work for the rail lobby and have spent decades deregulating tracks and trains.

It's frustrating beyond frustrating to hear these clown people talk right now.

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[deleted] t1_j9gyqg6 wrote

[removed]

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Megaloman71 t1_j9h1qr9 wrote

Yes, the government should. Your neighbor should be regulated if they're moving toxic chemicals adjacent to your property. The idea that people should start a GoFundMe to pay the railroads to properly maintain the rail lines is endorsing blackmail. Society ceases to function if people are allowed to harm others just because the harm is spawned on their own real estate.

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Tchrspest t1_j9h41xo wrote

You're right, we should trust private corporations, such as Norfolk Southern, who've been cutting back on manning and maintenance in the name of profits.

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6FartMouth9 t1_j9hd28u wrote

If there was profit it would not have happen

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Tchrspest t1_j9hpzyl wrote

Do

Do you think that Norfolk Southern is operating at a loss? Because that's the most generous interpretation I can think of for that otherwise utterly inane argument.

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themagni52 t1_j9iab3x wrote

Respectfully, you should learn about the subject you are trying to comment on. I dare you to learn how much profit Norfolk Southern makes.

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TheGr8erG00d t1_j9iic1z wrote

Through all of last year, Norfolk Southern said profit was up 9% to $3.27 billion, or $13.88 per share. Copyright 2023, The Associated Press.

Shut the fuck you ignorant shitweasel.

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Intelligent-Prune-33 t1_j9hgala wrote

The government has been getting less and less involved across multiple sectors… and here we are.

Reason being it’s cheaper for big corporations (like Southern Norfolk,) to buy a fucking senator than it is for them to actually maintain a safe rail line.

And these are the assholes you want looking grout for you?

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crazicus t1_j9ibbgu wrote

Government owns the interstate highways, why not the interstate railroads?

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DarthGouf t1_j9inr9n wrote

So we should go back to using lead paint and asbestos.

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yhwhx t1_j9h1q6g wrote

So, would anyone who doesn't want corporations to be unfettered in their poisoning of our water, soil, and air be a communist?

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stickkim t1_j9i51d9 wrote

What if we had government owned and maintained train tracks?

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Iseepuppies t1_j9k4qxn wrote

But but.. that might cut into the trillion dollar military spending! Maybe they could take it out of social security?

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Senyu t1_j9kjsao wrote

Won't someone please think of the shareholders!? Every lost potential penny might as well be theft to those poor, poor shareholders.

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alabastergrim t1_j9guzb1 wrote

These articles are going to keep popping up until the news finds something else to focus on, aren't they?

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Obi_Uno t1_j9h0feo wrote

Wait. I thought we were still doing balloons?

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Eeeegah t1_j9h0qby wrote

Just wait until they get all confused and start shooting down trains.

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kingoftheplebsIII t1_j9hivbg wrote

I wouldn't be remotely surprised if some redneck shot up a train only to have it release a bunch of balloons like some sort of meta gender reveal of '23

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VerticalYea t1_j9ho6iz wrote

Make it a gender neutral announcement and the whole thing would wrap back on itself nicely.

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arealhumannotabot t1_j9h3jig wrote

I don’t wanna make it sound like it doesn’t happen all the time, as in very frequently, but I don’t accept that everything as a cover-up or a distraction. What is this distract him from? People said the balloons were just a distraction from the derailments. So what are they hiding from? Kind of a rhetorical, kind of a serious question.

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MooKids t1_j9hbimb wrote

They already do it with shootings, so why not this?

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VegasKL t1_j9hqxzi wrote

Just wait until someone spots a train floating underneath a balloon somewhere over Alaska.

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macross1984 t1_j9gzkow wrote

Train derailments are preventable accidents so long as proper maintenance is done. Companies should be either fined or executives jailed for skimping on properly maintaining trains and rails.

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Phreakiture t1_j9ko0mk wrote

It will go a long way for sure.

It's not a complete answer, though. We also need to improve people's sensibilities around grade crossings. I saw a video last week of a derailment caused by a truck carrying an I-beam stuck at a grade crossing. You can see from the video how abruptly the lead locomotive slowed, and the effect that follows is essentially the same phenomenon as when a trailer jackknifes.

Now, here's where I do have a problem there: with the extremely long trains they've been running, they've been inserting additional locomotives mid-train. If the lead locomotive gets slowed down abruptly by a collision, that mid-train locomotive is going to be still pushing, exacerbating the problem already caused by the weight of all of that train's cargo moving forward.

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TwoFrontHitters t1_j9h1jo2 wrote

Train derailments today, bridge collapses tomorrow. Not a huge fan of any president really, but at least Biden tried to do something about infrastructure. I drive over the Mississippi river every day and I can't believe the bridge still stands.

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LesseFrost t1_j9j8bvd wrote

75 is getting a new bridge to replace the dilapidated old one too. It's been a big issue in Cincinnati for a while as that bridge is worn and genuinely scares me to drive on.

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FerociousPancake t1_j9inrwd wrote

Wow maybe those rail guys wanting to do that strike thing actually knew what they were talking about. Oh wowie I’m so surprised. We need change.

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Maltavius t1_j9gx44u wrote

That's no way near Gothenburg Sweden.... Yeesh USA need to get their own names for cities...

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Almainyny t1_j9jhajm wrote

Just like how our friends the British stole every word and bit of grammar they liked for their language, we followed in their footsteps and stole every city and place name we liked.

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thunderGunXprezz t1_j9i6ylt wrote

Where in Ohio is that?

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Elfere t1_j9gtqc9 wrote

Derailments happen all the time

As a defence for train derailments is the same kinda logical fallacy in used to seeing in America.

Another mass shooting in only country where this routinely happens! Where its super easy to get guns! And no one knows why.

Yeah. We all know why.

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dbhathcock t1_j9gu40l wrote

Since train derailments are in the spotlight right now, I would have thought that they would be taking extra precautions to ensure a derailment couldn’t happen.

Mayor Pete, why can’t you put hefty fines on the railways for all train derailments? In addition to fines, enforce proper cleanup and also have them pay a huge sum to the citizens that the derailments affect. If derailments drastically affected their bottom line, these companies would take action to prevent them.

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crazicus t1_j9ibiz9 wrote

They can’t fix the thousands of miles of rail in this country in two weeks, even if they were motivated to try

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johnjohn4011 t1_j9guwpm wrote

Something $$$ about the way the rail companies treat Mayor Pete, makes him only want to be nice to them.

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litewo t1_j9h7j1r wrote

Mayor Pete silent yet again.

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mikeybagodonuts t1_j9hmx1a wrote

You would have faired better posting about Trump cutting regulations. Nobody here want to hear about the Dems inaction.

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[deleted] t1_j9golct wrote

[removed]

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itsajaguar t1_j9gwyux wrote

Is this the new double standard for Democrats? The Secretary of Transportation has to show up to every single of the thousands of derailments a year when the president is a Democrat?

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big-haus11 t1_j9gvjlp wrote

The problem with the question and that answer is that they both miss it's a systemic issue of for-profit infrastructure.

Instead of one-liners, how about some knowledge

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AwesomeBrainPowers t1_j9h5saw wrote

Damn, did he lose his “Instantly modernize rail infrastructure and guarantee corporate best practices” button again?

That silly Secretary!

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[deleted] t1_j9h65ei wrote

[removed]

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AwesomeBrainPowers t1_j9h6hw0 wrote

> to the disaster-site and DEMAND change

And traveling to Ohio to stomp his feet and shout would have prevented a derailment in Nebraska…how?

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[deleted] t1_j9h86wv wrote

[removed]

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AwesomeBrainPowers t1_j9h8l28 wrote

That certainly was…a collection of words.

I’m seriously asking you a direct question: How, specifically, would the Secretary of Transportation traveling to Ohio and making a speech have prevented a derailment in Nebraska two weeks later?

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