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MycologistQueasy22 t1_jebezul wrote

Reply to comment by just_an_ordinary_guy in Train derailment in butler by thedudeabides412

> Yes, the raw number of derailments is down. But that's not a very useful statistic. They're running more miles than ever as the economy continually grows.

If total derailments are down and total miles are up then derailments / miles is going to be lower not higher.

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just_an_ordinary_guy t1_jedbplu wrote

I already responded down thread to you, but I'll put it here just for people to see. For some reason I flipped the concept in my head, you're right on the math part. They're actually running fewer millions of miles these days because precision scheduled railroading is consolidating shorter trains into much longer trains. So they travel fewer miles to move the same amount, if not more, freight.

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