I’m from here and I ride the trains up and down the length of the country fairly often, usually in sleeper class. Every class from Sleeper (SL) and up has linens – sometimes they’re hard to find or just not supplied, but they’re there.

Overcrowding is an issue regardless of whether you have or haven’t gotten a confirmed berth, because folks with unreserved tickets will also come crowding in (because they have to get where they’re going and there simply aren’t enough trains to satisfy demand) and you end up having to share your space with them even if you have a reserved seat. It’s exponentially worse in the sleeper/general (sitting) cars but it happens everywhere on the train. I’ve shared my space with them and I’ve been them. It’s not a pretty sight or a good experience for anyone involved.

I didn’t say luxurious, I said lacking in basic amenities. You’re absolutely right that trains should be for everyone, not just for the rich – but everyone also deserves to travel with a certain basic level of sanitation and comfort that isn’t there on a lot of Indian trains. Just because they’re cheap doesn’t mean they should be shit.

The toilets are filthy and unhygienic, the running water often…isn’t, the bed linen has been found to be dirty and/or infested with vermin on quite a few occasions, and the general state of most trains is just bad. Over and above that, the trains themselves haven’t been upgraded in years AND an increasing number of them just…aren’t in service any more, which means delays, horrible overcrowding, conflict on board the train, and an overall unpleasant passenger experience that further drives people away from taking trains.

This is made a lot worse by the fact that the railway authorities here tend to focus on trying to improve the experience for actual rich people in the upper classes (ie. 1st class/AC class) who aren’t even taking the train anyway – they’re flying. That means ticket prices for even the lower classes are rising, because all that money has to come from somewhere, but there’s no commensurate increase in the standard of service.

India trains are the best trains in the world.

Ehhhh…no, not really. There’s a lot of room for improvement there, honestly. They’re absolutely pretty inexpensive, but even then they’re sorely lacking in basic amenities, and successive governments (especially the current one) have steadily been ignoring the railways more and more in favor of roads and airlines – because rich people tend to either drive or fly, and mostly only poor people take trains. I guess the powers that be think that means the railways aren’t worth caring about.

It’s causing a runaway effect where more and more people are being forced to use roads because the trains are either in terrible nick or overcrowded or both, which means there’s even less focus on actually improving the trains, and so on and so forth.

Lol sure, if you can call flying middle-seat economy on Indigo once every few months “rich people” behavior

Yep, I use it every time I need to get to the airport

…and then he went to a village of 265 people, which still has a bus stop with a bicycle rack and buses that come every 12 minutes.

I’m in Mumbai. The 37km north-south journey from one end of the city to the other costs 20¢ on the local train. $1.20 if you want to ride the fancy train with AC. East-west is 13km and costs 50¢ on the elevated metro line.

Found one and updated it!

Just about every state and province in North America could claim that title once you’re outside the bigger cities

Spoon found in kitchen

…and also isn’t stealing shit and wrecking the environment.

You’re not wrong, but Sabine Hossenfelder is not a good source for well, anything (except physics, which she has excellent grounding in).

No I get that, but there’s this prevailing sentiment that cars are somehow more necessary in rural areas because…they’re not worth serving with transit or something? I don’t know. I think it’s ridiculous. Big cities should obviously have excellent transit and non-car infrastructure but so should small towns and villages

Funny you should mention Asian countries, considering both I and the author of the tweet in the screenshot live in an Asian country. We do use individual transport – but it’s not cars, it’s usually motorbikes or scooters. The “meme” (actually a serious opinion from someone who studies urbanism and transport for a living) is aimed at manufacturers and governments (like mine) who are pushing electric cars that most people can’t afford (and that people in rural areas definitely can’t afford) to the exclusion of public transit, which practically everyone can afford.

I don’t think you’ll find anyone with a lick of sense in here that’s advocating for zero cars – just that the way the system is currently set up prioritizes cars above everything else when it ought to be the other way around – cars ought to be the very last resort instead of the first option most people go for. Taxis absolutely have their uses, and yes they should be cheap, but not so abundant as to divert people from using mass transit like buses or trams

The money wasted in electric car subsidies is much better spent on mass transit and cycling and pedestrianization initiatives, all of which move far more people at much less cost per person. Electric cars are being posited as the solution (as opposed to drastically improved mass transit) because that’s the only way auto companies can stay relevant and maintain their supremacy

I think the confusion stems from the fact that the actual vehicle that the Brisbane Metro rolling stock is based on is also called a Hess LighTram. There’s a good chance that this is also going to end up just being a BRT like the Brisbane Metro, or (maybe) an adapted guided bus system. We’ll have to see, it’s still extremely early days for this project. Honestly I’m just glad they’re considering something like this, we have precious few modernized transit options in any of our cities.

I’m on the web interface so I do actually see the headline in the body (plus the beginning of the article itself), but I think maybe it doesn’t show up on other clients?