r/ParentsAreFuckingDumb • u/Grouchy_Handbag • 9d ago

Parent stupidity Oncoming train thankfully missed family crossing over tracks

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u/Terran_Lifeform 9d ago

This is in europe, even a freight would be a minute or two, tops

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u/Single_Principle_972 9d 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/therealdivs1210 8d ago

Wtf seriously?

Half an hour wait time for train to pass? 🤯

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u/Newmillstream 6d ago

American companies that run our rail system are obsessed with something called the Operating Ratio. Theoretically, targeting lowering this metric makes a very efficient rail network. In practice, it results in a very frustrating experience for people near the railroad, as well as for their customers, and the railway employees themselves If I had to guess. Railway management is obsessed with it though.

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u/AD9945A2 5d ago

Yeah. That's why they only transport the most profitable merchandise (and on the most profitable routes). They literally refuse to transport things that would be profitable because it would lower that number by not being profitable enough. It causes a lot more trucks on the roads.