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LSeww t1_jcic115 wrote

Reply to comment by leigon16 in [OC] Hazmat Train Derailment by iamahorseindisguise

>derailments occurred pretty frequently

only in USA, about 1000 per year. In european countries it's single digits per year.

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leigon16 t1_jciob5h wrote

On the conservative side of your European argument that means you have a derailment every two months (assuming 6 per year). Train derailments make news nationally in the US maybe once every 3-5 years. Thanks for proving my point by being a European exceptionalist!

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Lost-Recording3890 t1_jcimwbc wrote

Europe doesn’t have as nearly vast of a rail network.

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exculcator t1_jcjpflv wrote

Not so. There is currently about 260 000 km of railways in the US (of which about 150000 are 1st class), while there are 200 000 km in "Europe", which doesn't include places like the UK (over 15 000 km), so the two are very similar in terms of route length (adding in Canada and Mexico would make North America seem quite a bit bigger).

Edit: it occurs to me that the quoted figures are mostly route lengths, not track lengths. Since double tracking is much more prevalent in Europe than the US, I suspect the actual length of track is higher in Europe.

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