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Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada

trains.fyi

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Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada

#291

Post by mc32 »

eskibars wrote: post #246
dhosek wrote: post #229

I’d kind of like real-time tracking of freight trains. There’s a BNSF grade crossing between my home and my parents’ and it would be nice to know whether I should take the 1 mile detour to get to the tunnel beneath the rail yard if there’s a train going to be blocking (I suppose it would also help to have info on the length of the trains so I’d know if the train in front of me is almost clear or if there’s another mi…

It'd be great. My understanding is that there's basically no live data for freight trains unfortunately

There has to be data because often passenger rail shares railway with freight rail and have to schedule things to avoid accidents.

Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada

#292

Post by plowjockey »

Fiahil wrote: post #270

I don't think it's working properly. Most (if not all?) trains are going at around 40-20 km/h. Why would they all stop in the middle of nowhere like this ?

Slow orders abound on US freight roads. This time of year maintenance of way crews are being cut off to protect budgets and only the bare minimum of maintenance is being done until after the first of the year when the crews will be brought back.

Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada

#293

Post by orangewindies »

jokteur wrote: post #253

I love these maps. Here is one from Switzerland: https://maps.vasile.ch/transit-sbb/ , just a tad bit busier than the US

Sweden: https://1409.se/

UK (not a map, similar view to what the signallers see): https://traksy.uk/live/M+58+STIRLNG

Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada

#294

Post by lcedp »

retendo wrote: post #269
thriftwy wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://rasp.yandex.ru/map/trains/#center=37.63999999999997%... Yandex has it for (mostly Russian) trains that it has on schedule.

I love that the map doesn't show any borders

In many Russian policies, the concept of a border is definitely lacking.

Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada

#295

Post by adhesive_wombat »

willyt wrote: post #281
adhesive_wombat wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's like writing "Mexico and America". If you're going to add geographic qualifiers like "North", the equivalent would be more like "UK and West Europe". Without such qualifiers, the meaning is clearly "continental Europe", which is a meaningful distinction when it comes to the rail, because they have two almost entirely disjoint rail systems. Ok, yes, technically the European rail system does actually physicall…

Uk does actually follow EU regulations and standards because all the technology is designed and manufactured in the EU. HS2 is being built to an EU standard loading gauge with EU standard electronic signalling, likewise crossrail. When routes are upgraded to electronic signalling they are upgraded to an EU standard signalling technology, likewise with electrification. Loading gauge is typically smaller but when new b…

> is not technological it’s because the customs and border requirements

Probably why I mentioned political integration in the sentence then.

But at this point I'm akchually-ing an akchually to an akchually!

Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada

#296

Post by red-iron-pine »

eskibars wrote: post #246
dhosek wrote: post #229

I’d kind of like real-time tracking of freight trains. There’s a BNSF grade crossing between my home and my parents’ and it would be nice to know whether I should take the 1 mile detour to get to the tunnel beneath the rail yard if there’s a train going to be blocking (I suppose it would also help to have info on the length of the trains so I’d know if the train in front of me is almost clear or if there’s another mi…

It'd be great. My understanding is that there's basically no live data for freight trains unfortunately

there definitely is, but the roads aren't going to share it.

and tracking trains ain't like tracking planes, where they're easy to see up in the sky and constantly transmitting -- train X takes a turn around a mountain and it's in a radio/cell deadzone and that's it.

plus unless you have high-end SAMs you're not able to impact most planes overhead, but shady individuals could certainly impact trains.

Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada

#297

Post by red-iron-pine »

idiotsecant wrote: post #289
waveBidder wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

way more attack surface?

If you want to blow up a train it's already pretty easy. Find a track and wait.

don't even need a bomb, its not hard to cause derailments. a shovel and some time is enough

Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada

#298

Post by epaulson »

dhosek wrote: post #229

I’d kind of like real-time tracking of freight trains. There’s a BNSF grade crossing between my home and my parents’ and it would be nice to know whether I should take the 1 mile detour to get to the tunnel beneath the rail yard if there’s a train going to be blocking (I suppose it would also help to have info on the length of the trains so I’d know if the train in front of me is almost clear or if there’s another mi…

Live data would be great, but I'd be interested even in historic data. Not like 1880s but a timeseries of 15-minute granularity of train positions for last year. It'd be interesting to see what the bottlenecks were and what other routing possibilities there could have been.

Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada

#299

Post by thriftwy »

lcedp wrote: post #294
retendo wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love that the map doesn't show any borders

In many Russian policies, the concept of a border is definitely lacking.

We've got too many of these in 1991 and think we can spare a few now.

Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada

#300

Post by epivosism »

shiroiuma wrote: post #266
epivosism wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already have the land rights, favorable social environment for construction, more compliant population, less local/more federal legal zoning and land use power, more federal level direction to get things done, higher rate of engineers in population. That CA is bad at all of those makes it expensive and hard In addition to very low competence levels in gov't compared to Japan due to many factors. Sure Japan has f…

>less local/more federal legal zoning and land use power, more federal level direction to get things done, Nitpick: this part isn't correct. There's no federal legal zoning or direction or anything federal at all. Japan doesn't have a federal government; like most countries, it has a unitary government. The US is unusual this way, along with Germany and Russia. But otherwise, you're right. It's much easier to build s…

Ah, thanks. My comment was based on this link which I share often on Japanese Zoning. http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html

related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_land_law

Looking it up, I see you're right. They have national zoning laws but even there, things do seem to be getting more complicated.

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