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

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

#271

Post by hengistbury »

Reason077 wrote: post #234
kylecazar wrote: post #27

Wow, I don't know why I thought there would be... Way, way more trains active at a given time. I suppose I overestimated passenger rail popularity in this country.. I knew it wasn't relatively huge, but there's several hundred miles in some cases between trains.

It would be interesting to see a version of this for the UK, where there are approximately 24,000 train services operating every weekday. How well would it scale? The data is available and open!

This is a similar site for the UK: https://www.map.signalbox.io/

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

#272

Post by Dharmaaa »

phyphy wrote: post #15

Here in India we have an app named "Where is my train?". Local people use this app a lot when traveling by train. It's not government owned either and has no ads. Just throwing in here for some inspiration since I don't know the inner workings of that app. Edit: It uses nearby cell towers to estimate the location of train

and In 2018 , Google has acquired Sigmoid Labs Pvt. Ltd, the team behind the “Where is my train”.

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

#273

Post by gadcam »

Here is THE MAP for France ! https://carto.graou.info/46.90174/1.83822/5.4455/0/0 Shameless plug : we are developping Trainscanner to travel accross Europe https://www.train-scanner.com/?u=hn-c-38434574 Do not hesitate to leave us some feedback :)

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

#274

Post by woodruffw »

paddy_m wrote: post #68
ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Acela qualifies as HSR in the most basic sense: it has sections that run at 125mph. This is also the sense in which Brightliner in FL is HSR.

(This doesn’t make the situation any less embarrassing.)

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

#275

Post by rathish_g »

Dharmaaa wrote: post #272
phyphy wrote: post #15

Here in India we have an app named "Where is my train?". Local people use this app a lot when traveling by train. It's not government owned either and has no ads. Just throwing in here for some inspiration since I don't know the inner workings of that app. Edit: It uses nearby cell towers to estimate the location of train

and In 2018 , Google has acquired Sigmoid Labs Pvt. Ltd, the team behind the “Where is my train”.

and integrated to Google Maps

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

#276

Post by LeanderK »

chroma wrote: post #151
nilsbunger wrote: post #116

It's sad that even great potential routes like SF->LA aren't accessible by train, and we don't seem to have the state capacity to build HSR there. I was just in Japan, and took the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto, which is a similar distance as SF to LA. That train: - runs every 10 minutes -- if you miss one, just take the next one! - takes 2.5 hours travel time - starts and ends in city centers on both ends. - has be…

High speed rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles isn't economically viable. California HSR will cost at least $30 billion to construct and California's own estimates claim it will cost $700-$874 million per year to operate.[1] Around four million passengers fly between SF and LA every year. Assuming every single one of them takes the train instead of flying, you're looking at $175-$218 per ticket just to pay for…

flying is also not ecologically sustainable. We need alternatives, even if we can't eliminate long distance flights, to reach zero emissions quickly.

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

#277

Post by yason »

In Finland I've been using a similar tool for years now when picking up family members from railways stations and when getting out from the station and out to the platform to board a train: https://www.vr.fi/en/live-train-tracker-map

It's incredibly more helpful than timetables (printed or online) or late train announcements and trying to find the right train names and numbers. Instead of identifying the right train, then checking the latest changes for that train on the schedule board and wondering if "3 minutes late" really means "3 minutes" you just look at the map and see, oh there's my train half way here from the previous town, I'll go have a cuppa.

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

#278

Post by woodruffw »

screye wrote: post #122
kylecazar wrote: post #27

Wow, I don't know why I thought there would be... Way, way more trains active at a given time. I suppose I overestimated passenger rail popularity in this country.. I knew it wasn't relatively huge, but there's several hundred miles in some cases between trains.

The only half decent fast railway (acela) in the US costs more than an uber+flight for the same trip. I'm surprised anyone takes it at all. US rail is starting at negative 100. Only a small group of masochists (raises hand) choose to inflict this on themselves.

This isn’t true, unless you’re doing something weird like booking the most expensive Acela the day before and comparing it to the least-expensive flight booked in advance. And even when you do this: taxi fare from NYC airports to downtown Manhattan is around $60, so I don’t know how you’ve worked this out.

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

#279

Post by gpvos »

Ichthypresbyter wrote: post #224
jantissler wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is actually a problem in Germany that high-speed trains too often share tracks with slower passenger and freight trains. Other countries like Japan put their high-speed trains on completely separate tracks.

I think Japan only does that for weird legacy reasons- freight and slower passenger trains run on 1067 mm gauge tracks, while the Shinkansen network is standard (1435 mm) gauge.

No, France does the same thing, it has much more high speed track than Germany, even though TGVs ride on classical track as well in the periphery.

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

#280

Post by Reason077 »

hengistbury wrote: post #271
Reason077 wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be interesting to see a version of this for the UK, where there are approximately 24,000 train services operating every weekday. How well would it scale? The data is available and open!

This is a similar site for the UK: https://www.map.signalbox.io/

Very cool! I think it just needs a stats page to answer questions like "how many trains are running on the network right now?", etc.
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