Nice! Is there a way to track every freight train as well?
Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada
61–70 of 316 posts
Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada
#62It would be cool to see an equivalent map for freight rail. These threads always focus on the lack of passenger rail service in the US but ignore that the US also has one of the largest, safest, and most efficient freight rail systems in the world[1]. I'd love to see it live! https://railroads.dot.gov/rail-network-development/freight-r...
Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada
#63Neat. Is there anything like this that shows freight?
Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada
#64It would be cool to see an equivalent map for freight rail. These threads always focus on the lack of passenger rail service in the US but ignore that the US also has one of the largest, safest, and most efficient freight rail systems in the world[1]. I'd love to see it live! https://railroads.dot.gov/rail-network-development/freight-r...
I did a bit of a deep dive on this over the weekend and left feeling more confused than when I started. From what I can gather, outside of CN's holiday freight train, most of the tracking is done by community members with SDR antennas and Raspberry Pis. They report to centralized servers (which I've yet to find), and the data indicates where trains are in signalling blocks. I'm the least knowledgeable person on trains, so I don't know if this is all accurate, but that's my best understanding.
I'd love to build some sort of service that takes this data, references a DB of signaling blocks, and establishes an estimated lat/lng - but that's a huge project of its own.
Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada
#65I believe there was a quote from a railroad exec that Passenger rail traffic accounts for only 3% of the overall rail traffic in North America. If true, the map would be covered with Locomotives if freight was included (GP-40's are my favorite).
That would be a curious comparison point. I feel like every discussion of rail in the US always turns into pointing and laughing at how bad the US is at rail because it's viewed through a passenger lens, completely ignoring how much rail is used for freight. My impression is that a lot of the rest of the world has much better passenger rail, but uses freight rail quite a bit less. I wonder if part of it is due to the…
I assume it would be less about the dominance of passanger displacing freight and more about scale/distance. Germany is smaller than Texas (half the area). How often is it economical to put stuff on trains before loading them on trucks again for distances sub 1000km?
Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada
#66This is pretty cool. I hope you'll add MARC and Brightline trains as well, as your app evolves.
looks like it's at least possible!
https://www.mta.maryland.gov/marc-tracker
https://www.transit.land/feeds/f-brightline~trails~rt
I'll add them to the list and investigate; thanks!
Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada
#67It would be cool to see an equivalent map for freight rail. These threads always focus on the lack of passenger rail service in the US but ignore that the US also has one of the largest, safest, and most efficient freight rail systems in the world[1]. I'd love to see it live! https://railroads.dot.gov/rail-network-development/freight-r...
PSR would like a word with your categorization. Indeed the Class 1s are the mortal enemy of decent intercity and commuter rail.
Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
The site is incomplete, and there are way, way more trains active at a given time. For instance the Tri-Rail and Brightline (high-speed rail) in Florida each have 5-6 trains running simultaneously. Brightline is notable as the US's first credible foray into high-speed rail. Similarly most major cities in the US have either light rail, rapid transit, or both, which is maybe not included in this map. "Passenger rail" m…
Obviously it’s not the first credible foray into HSR in the US-that honor is Acelas. Edit: if you’re referring to Brightline West, construction hasn’t even started.
Acela isn't HSR, and Metroliner which came before had travel times from NYC to DC as low as 2.5 hours. Acela does the same trip in 3.5 hours. Metroliner lowered trip times primarily through faster acceleration.
Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada
#69This is cool, but you are missing NJ Transit which has passenger trains separate from LIRR and Metro North. You are also missing Septa and MTA internal city light rail and subway lines, which are technically passenger trains.
Re: Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada
#70This is pretty cool. I hope you'll add MARC and Brightline trains as well, as your app evolves.
looks like it's at least possible! https://www.mta.maryland.gov/marc-tracker https://www.transit.land/feeds/f-brightline~trails~rt I'll add them to the list and investigate; thanks!
Thank you!