<story><title>Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada</title><url>https://trains.fyi/</url><text>Hey all! My train the other day was delayed and I got curious where they all were at any given time, so I built a map and figured I&amp;#x27;d share it.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>paddy_m</author><text>Acela isn&amp;#x27;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.</text></item><item><author>ZanyProgrammer</author><text>Obviously it’s not the first credible foray into HSR in the US-that honor is Acelas.&lt;p&gt;Edit: if you’re referring to Brightline West, construction hasn’t even started.</text></item><item><author>condiment</author><text>The site is incomplete, and there are way, way more trains active at a given time. For instance the Tri-Rail and Brightline (high-speed rail) in Florida each have 5-6 trains running simultaneously. Brightline is notable as the US&amp;#x27;s first credible foray into high-speed rail. Similarly most major cities in the US have either light rail, rapid transit, or both, which is maybe not included in this map. &amp;quot;Passenger rail&amp;quot; might have some highly specific semantic meaning that leaves these out of this map.</text></item><item><author>kylecazar</author><text>Wow, I don&amp;#x27;t know why I thought there would be... Way, way more trains active at a given time.&lt;p&gt;I suppose I overestimated passenger rail popularity in this country.. I knew it wasn&amp;#x27;t relatively huge, but there&amp;#x27;s several hundred miles in some cases between trains.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jcranmer</author><text>&amp;gt; Acela does the same trip in 3.5 hours.&lt;p&gt;I just rode it last week, and it actually took 3 hours, not 3.5.&lt;p&gt;Most of the NEC corridor from DC to NYC has a speed limit of 125mph; from NYC to New Haven, it&amp;#x27;s generally 70mph (!), from New Haven thence to about Kingston generally 90mph, and from there to Boston it&amp;#x27;s mostly 150mph. Given the density of the corridor, Amtrak &lt;i&gt;should&lt;/i&gt; be trying for 150-220mph speed limits, but even 125mph is generally agreed upon to be the lowest end of HSR.&lt;p&gt;A surprisingly easy way to make the train go faster would be to redesign the switching sections before large stations to allow trains to go faster through them. You can probably cut around 10 minutes out of the entire length with an investment of less than $100 million just by doing that.</text></comment>
<story><title>Show HN: Trains.fyi – a live map of passenger trains in the US and Canada</title><url>https://trains.fyi/</url><text>Hey all! My train the other day was delayed and I got curious where they all were at any given time, so I built a map and figured I&amp;#x27;d share it.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>paddy_m</author><text>Acela isn&amp;#x27;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.</text></item><item><author>ZanyProgrammer</author><text>Obviously it’s not the first credible foray into HSR in the US-that honor is Acelas.&lt;p&gt;Edit: if you’re referring to Brightline West, construction hasn’t even started.</text></item><item><author>condiment</author><text>The site is incomplete, and there are way, way more trains active at a given time. For instance the Tri-Rail and Brightline (high-speed rail) in Florida each have 5-6 trains running simultaneously. Brightline is notable as the US&amp;#x27;s first credible foray into high-speed rail. Similarly most major cities in the US have either light rail, rapid transit, or both, which is maybe not included in this map. &amp;quot;Passenger rail&amp;quot; might have some highly specific semantic meaning that leaves these out of this map.</text></item><item><author>kylecazar</author><text>Wow, I don&amp;#x27;t know why I thought there would be... Way, way more trains active at a given time.&lt;p&gt;I suppose I overestimated passenger rail popularity in this country.. I knew it wasn&amp;#x27;t relatively huge, but there&amp;#x27;s several hundred miles in some cases between trains.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>thatfrenchguy</author><text>Peak speed is how HSRs are defined, and Brightline is 200km&amp;#x2F;h, which is really mediocre for technology past the 80s, this is the speed at high most upgraded lines run in France.</text></comment>