• TheSaddestMan@lemmy.zip
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    19 hours ago

    It’s not just that. Trains don’t run as well or brake as efficiently in cold weather, they have slippery metal rails for a reason. That’s why we switched to cars and trucks too readily, and as sad as that is, I think we might need electric cars more than Americans ever needed any cars.

    (That said, electric cars should be thanks to electrified smartroads, not stuffing the car itself full of computer hardware.)

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      6 minutes ago

      trains are the most reliable mode of transport in winter conditions, the fact that they’re so monstrously heavy and have tiny points of contact with the rails means they will simply squeeze out snow and crush ice, no plowing needed.

      go ahead and try to drive a car through 20cm of slushy snow, it ain’t happening.

    • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Do you have a source for this? Our cargo trains run through some pretty frigid winters. Many European countries have a similar climate and they have trains. Aren’t the swiss famous for sending trains through snowy mountains?

      • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.ca
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        4 hours ago

        They certainly are. They have some of the steepest adhesion railways in the world on those mountains.