transcription: two girls on opposite sides of the country: "hey girl, come on over" "omg id love to"

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[–] 59 points 1 month ago* (3 children)

$80 for the overnight nationalized bullet train

Oh wait, yea

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  • [–] 16 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    That train would have to go at least 300 miles per hour.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    200 mph, 12.5 hours and you're alseep for most of it.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Only if there are no stops in between.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    It's called the coast to coast redeye, not the layover in Denver redeye!

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    yeah, once you get to the other coast you take a regional train to your final destination

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago*

    Portland and NYC are both major cities that would terminate a transcontinental service. The Oregon Trail actually terminated right outside of Portland, though it's certainly the least-major of the 4 major west coast metros, one day it'll be subsumed into Sea/Tac.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago* (3 children)

    yeah airplanes are typically faster above a range of 300 miles or sth

    the problem with long-distance trains isn't ideology, it's just an issue of physics/engineering. Airplanes typically travel around 800 km/h (~ 600 mph), which means you can make the 3000 km (2000 miles) distance from seattle to new york in roughly 4 hours.

    good luck trying to achieve these speeds with a train.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Yeah but you can get a pleasant experience overnight in a cubbyhole bed on a train. Functionally speaking, the time spent traveling while getting good sleep doesn't really count, does it? You were gonna have to sleep anyway. Good luck doing that on a plane. Plus then trains can be built to go right into the heart of downtown, meaning a much shorter "last mile," which planes can't really do. Then you got the airport vs train station experience, the café car on the train, the larger seats, etc etc etc

    Ain't everything about the advertised speed.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago*

    I used to work remote in Brooklyn and occasionally have to report to the office in Baltimore. HR would always offer plane tickets and I would decline in favor of having them pay for cheaper business-class Acela tickets. It was better in every possible way: I could walk to and from the stations at both ends, didn't have the TSA porno-scanner hassle, had more personal space in transit, and ironically when the entire door to door trip was considered the train was actually 40 minutes faster. Regional trips are that sweet spot where even a slower train beats flying.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    My math was Portland to NYC = 2500 miles / 200 mph = 12.5 hours, thus the overnight. The $80 came from a certain other country's nationalized high speed rail price tiering. I don't care that planes are faster, they're a miserable experience and an ecological travesty, rock me to sleep on the coast to coast redeye.

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  • [–] 35 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    I am sorry for both of the girls.

    Cannot imagine to live in a country where they are ruled by an living orange and no good train system exists...

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  • [–] 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    I dont now how people manage to like the united stupid of america, or believe there is freedom

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    I mean, it's home. I have many many criticisms and want to get the ability to leave if necessary. But it's where I've always lived, it's where my family is, where most of my friends live, where I met my wife, where I buried my mom. It has natural beauty that I've been fortunate enough to see a lot of and a history of preserving it for future generations. I love a lot of the rights we used to have and I fought for years to make the place better.

    But yeah freedom, that was always more of a slogan and an ideal, not something we actually have or can agree on what it is.

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  • [–] 21 points 1 month ago* (2 children)

    Plot twist, their both in Salem.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago*

    Oregon doesn't really do original place names. Best they can do is a mispelling or mispronouciation of another place's name.

    This is to make up for the fact that the name "Oregon" is so original that nobody is certain of it's origin.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    This is what VR and internet-capable vibrators were invented for.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Nothing beats physical touch though.

    It helps to be able to communicate and have some intimacy even far away, still.

    Hugs are awesome. :3

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  • [–] 14 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Even across countries 🥲

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  • [–] 13 points 1 month ago

    I too, wish there were cross-country high speed trains.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    At least y'all are in the same hemisphere, I'm next to Antarctica

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  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago
    [–] 4 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Just hop on the transcontinental high-speed train and...

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago*

    Me in Europe and my gfs in Brazil and the US :(

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    This is me with nearly every trans friend I have (am trans)

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    Meet up in Minnesota!!! It's in the middle

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    You might want to add they are in the US in the description.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    At least they are in the same country, some couples aren't even in the same continent.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    both trapped ;(

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    yeah centralization would mitigate these issues, i.e. there should be a central location where we all meet up. the difficulty is figuring out where to place this center.

    in fact, if you look at population maps, you can easily see that most people are concentrated on the east or west coast. this is largely already because it reduces average travel times between one person and the next. (it also helps the economy, shorter transport -> cheaper transport).

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