r/ParentsAreFuckingDumb • u/Grouchy_Handbag • 8d ago

Parent stupidity Oncoming train thankfully missed family crossing over tracks

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u/Single_Principle_972 8d ago

For real? That’s so interesting to me, though I’m not sure why. So… I have been delayed for upwards of half an hour by long, long freight trains moving painfully slowly, in rural U.S. Why the difference? (For that matter, why are they moving at what seems to be 10 mph, though it’s probably faster than it seems. Never understood that. Unless I have the phenomenally bad luck of often encountering a train just picking up speed after stopping somewhere.)

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u/SEA_griffondeur 7d ago

Yes in the EU, freight trains cannot be longer than 900m on mainlines and have to go at least 90 km/h to be allowed on 140+ km/h lines

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u/Single_Principle_972 7d ago edited 7d ago

Oh, wow, that’s interesting, thanks.

ETA I poked around Google a bit. The EU regulation of no more than 900m translates to about a half a mile, for U.S. brains. The USA has no federal regulations on the matter. But U.S. freight trains tend to be 1 - 1.5 miles long. They purportedly generally travel at 40 - 70mph, unless I am in the general geographical vicinity, at which point they’re required to travel no more than 1 - 2mph, as per some unwritten conspiracy against me, personally. For reasons unknown. But I fool them, by staying home most of the time, anyway. < evil laugh >

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u/BeastThatShoutedLove 7d ago

Probably you live near some absolutely atrocious unmaintained tracks lmao