Not to be a downer, but that train (which I'd never heard of until today), runs 3 kilometers... A good start, but the rest of Australia's rail system isn't exactly world leading.

I had never seen it either. Not even on the news

Shithole country ‼️

And building 200 million dollar White House ballrooms, and using 1 billion to retrofit a luxury bribe jet.

That’s why we can’t have nice things - too much hate and violence.

This is on car and oil lobby. I teared up on the Shinkansen thinking about what could have been in the U.S. It’s nearly 52 years old and the best train system I’ve ever been on.

Fascist country

Perpetual motion maybe 👀

👀

If those are 400-Watt solar panels, then peak power from them would be 6400 Watts (per car). That will translate down to about 10-12 horsepower, max. Might be enough to cruise at a moderate speed on level track, but performance otherwise would suck.

This is nonsense. It does no one any good to post rubbish.

Taco actively works to kill environmentally friendly projects. EVs, electric mail trucks, windmills, etc are targets.

Simpler than that. We like to ignore its us white people continuing an apartheid we put in place of Reconstruction.

Slightly misleading image, it's AI gen, and omits the external solar poweriand batteries

I want one

Trump's disturbed state of mind allows nothing else. A cautionary tale about our state of mind and what we do with it, or in Trump's case ignore the illness and give in to the impulses. To paraphrase several quotes: The question isn't whether we're creators, the question is what are we creating?

Meanwhile, taxpayer dollars are being spent to destroy the simple beauty of the White House, turning it into some trashy, classless collection of FAKE - just like DJT.

💯

Yes, that is great, but I would not think solar panels on the roof would be enough energy to move a train, and electricity for the interior. Just not enough. However, it's great in the sunny desert of Australia, but NOT in rainy, snowy, cloudy, NORTH AMERICA, never New England!

You’re right. And this would be wonderful. But I’m in Australia and I can categorically say that this doesn’t exist. We don’t even have rail that can cross between states easily because they all built them at different gauges back in the day.

As another Australian, it does exist and works, but it only runs from Byron Beach to North Beach. Great proof of concept though.

Apologies. Great start I guess

And also giving billionaires more tax cuts

Oh it would immediately be branded “woke” and killed just like the rest of the things that are good for the country and its people.

Could you make the train racist somehow? Maybe that would get them interested

Our politicians are financed by automakers and big oil & gas. They prefer supporting the use of fossil fuels over other energy sources such as solar and wind.

Sept 21, we gather to celebrate Sun Day and the benefits the Sun confers should we but lay out a solar cloak to gather its gifts. sunday.earth

It'll never - EVER - happen here. Exxon-Mobil, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell would never allow something this innovation to cut into their profit margins here in the U.S.

This is so depressing, but I’ve been depressed about how we suck at rail travel since I watched who framed Roger rabbit. We have a legacy of fraud against the population to benefit the wealthy again and again.

If only billionaires paid the ultrasound fair share! If only Republicans didn't get their legislative agenda from those billionaires! We could have nice things if it weren't for Republicans!

Science vs whatever the hell is going on here

"If America is the 'Greatest Nation in the World' ", it begs the question, "In relation to which country?". For example, Nashville TN is about to get BORED with a tunnel courtesy of Muskrat, with free land use. China would build a monorail and America would pay for it through Walmart.

And gold trim for the office.

I obviously would love to do this for all these obvious reasons, but a hilarious side benefit would be watching Republicans humiliate themselves by going on national TV asking how the trains will run at night.

😂👏

We could have cool things in the USA if we’d stop electing morons.

AI slop. No such thing. Also there's the small matter of physics. Solar panels are great but under ideal conditions they may produce 150 to 300 watts. So, 4ish panels per kilowatt... And each panel needs 1.7 square metres... A diesel electric locomotive generates a 1000 to 3000 _kilowatts_

Fake, fucking inaccurate BS Please don’t be like MAGA!!!!

As a citizen, I request legislation that requires visibly identifiable local law officers accompany/record all ICE operations and maintain-on-file the identities of all ICE agents operating in their jurisdictions. This will help protect operatives’ identities while verifying their authenticity. 1of2

2of2 The public can be assured that if laws are being broken or rights violated the crime can and will be prosecuted. If protests nevertheless result, this neutral presence can help insure no injuries occur.

We never will because billionaires don’t pay taxes.

We also have "leaders" who don't understand how this train operates on cloudy days.

Public office needs minimum competency exams. Stupid assholes don't belong in government. I hate that an illiterate pedophile is being called the leader of this country. He's a fucking traitor.

And stop paying isreal so they cant afford doing crimes against humanity and war crimes. (Both of yall parties does this)

The only things shithole US can build are vast fortunes for the very few. The public good be damned!

The FELON is convinced these trains won't drive in Claudy weather or rain, he is an embicile idiot

But what if the sun isn’t out???🙄

Heck, even St. Reagan[1983] could 'see it.'

Yep. And on vacations for the Vice-President, and golfing for the President.

If Exxon et al could charge for sunshine we would have them.

That is so cool. We can't have nice things because the oligarchs and the GOP are now in bed screwing over the American people and any credibility we had on the world stage. The kakistracy, broligarchy, politicians, MAGA morons and Orange Shitler haven't an ounce of humanity amongst them.

You could have had it all. So sad.

It is literally depressing.

Very. Such a beautiful, rich, diverse country. I was so sad when we had to move back here after living in and traveling the US for years. And now 😭

I'm old enough to remember, as a kid, reading about a future filled with solar and wind energy, massive recycling... Then I got older and learned about big oil, politics, and who controls the narrative. 😖

Could?????? Should. #epsteinFiles.

The US government isn't hete to make the lives of US citizens better. It's here to take their taxes and use them to protect the lives and assets of the wealthy.

Amen!

Yeah if our government cared it would give us things like a solar train that can go 1.8 miles snd on perfect days with no obstruction of the sun can almost make that trip four times and charge $12 for a round trip, lol

Or we could get to ride it for free and, in areas with less sun the solar can be a supplement to other energy sources.

They charge $12 bucks for the round trip is why I mention it, its 1.8 miles of total track for that thing, I would bring some running shoes and put what else I need in a ruck sack and go for a jog that like 15-17 minutes away at a light trot

Regardless, affordable light rail and better publuc transit networks would make life easier for millions of working Americans. But our government would prefer to pour billions into adding lanes to highways.

The quality of public transportation varies from region to region in this country and some of it is very good and others leave a lot to be desired, the metro in DC is a really good public transportation system in my opinion

With better public transit, the quality of life in dense urban areas will improve and many people will prefer city life to that of the suburbs. And people will be able to take better jobs because they won't be limited by a lack of a personal vehicle. And there will be far less pollution, overall.

Don’t forget those massive tax breaks to billionaires.

We especially “love” corporate welfare.

What's it like to have a government that actually listens to climate scientists and cares about the environment?

Australian here. No idea. It doesn’t happen here, at least not on the scale that is necessary. There is one solar train but it’s really just a novelty. It’s in a town which is one of the outposts of hippiedom. Meanwhile, we’re still battling to get trains electrified in capital cities.

and the military. the US spends twice the per capita amount on defense as does Australia

America talks a big game but we are really getting screwed! The richest country in the world and we can’t even get our cellphones to work! Ty he rest of the world is blowing past us because we are spending all of our resources on being paranoid about protecting what we think we have!

youtu.be/4Y8g1kjqWcY?...

It's an AI gen image. This is the real train and it runs just 1.8 miles in Byron Bay. I wish people would check images before believing what they see.

Thank You

These are the people to watch. www.magnovate.com

Not to be that guy, but the image isn’t real. There is a real solar train in Australia, but it’s a novelty. The track is 3km (1.8 mi). Although solar is awesome, solar tech isn’t at a point it can generate enough energy to propel modern vehicles for modern uses in real time.

Those 6.5 kW of panels on the train could power my Nissan Leaf for ~30 miles every hour (at peak efficiency for both the panels and car). Cool project for a short tourist train, but not portrayed with enough context in that post. Integrated panels are a niche, big projects need grid scale.

Not to mention, those panels occupy the roof of the train. not nearly as much real estate on the roof of your car.

Yeah, Australian here. I saw the image and thought, “what? I’m sure we don’t have that”!

The tech is there. The infrastructure isn't. There's a difference.

The tech isn't there, that can't expand far past what it is, its inefficient and impractical

Guessing you didn't read the rest of our conversation? I suppose it depends on your goal though. If all you want is a renewables powered electric train, thats not complicated. If for some reason the train HAS to be completely self sufficient without external power, that's harder, yeah.

Yeah that's what I was driving at is the scalability as a self sufficient solar system

Yeah that's totally fair then. I see things like that and wonder why they're trying to solve a problem in that particularly difficult way. It just depends on the problem you want to solve I think. We need both approaches to keep moving forwards. New technologies, and new ways of using old ones.

Minus storage? I mean, I’m all for putting panels on the roof of the train cars, but the bulk of the energy to move even this thing comes from the roof of the train depot, transferred to on-board battery.

We've had electric trams cities around the world, it's hardly novel technology at this point. Everyone feels like they have to reinvent the wheel instead of finding new ways to use what we already know.

Right. And I’m hugely supportive of that. Electric trains also exist. We have some near me in California. My issue fundamentally is with the AI clickbait image of a train that doesn’t exist with technology we don’t need to deploy for such use cases.

Oh yeah, no argument there. It's just always funny to me that we've been trying to figure self driving and electric vehicles for this long and nobody is changing the way we build roads. Have a lot of ideas about that, but need to save us from ourselves and bigoted assholes first.

Run power through the rail bed in some way and power it by induction.

Have you heard of solar roadway? They are devesolar pnels used to pave roads nd one benefit is to charge vehicles via induction. It is amazing. They are in phase 5 I think in development and are starting on some real world applications. Solarroadways.com

Oh nice! I've been thinking of multi-part highway system. It's all pen and paper currently, but solar canopies, modular road panels with power transmission and fiber optics beneath them, all elevated to reduce environmental and wildlife impact. Piezoelectrics in the panels for additional power ->

- generation, and some form of built in transponder guidance to communicate with vehicles and make auto navigation easier by having them networked with one another. Magnetic or contact induction to power the vehicles. Yep.

I mean, cyberpunk and related genres had this stuff kind of designed years ago. We just need to build the infrastructure to make it usable.

That's $12 bucks for a round trip ticket on that thing as well, for 1.8 miles brings some jogging shoes and a backpack and you can make the trip on foot for free in 15-18 minutes, call it a morning and afternoon workout

Yep, the real train is way prettier than the AI slop image. Why they didn't use a pic of the real train is beyond me.

Our suburban rail is already (mostly?) electric. That AI-generated image is supposed to represent a demo that gets some of its power from its own roof, but that seems irrelevant: solar power is solar power. You could have that train by increasing the proportion of solar power you use nationally.

How would this play in a Tom Cruise spy thriller?

100%

On Donnie 2 Dolls and MTG's behalf, they don't work if the sun isn't out.

And protecting child fuckers

We also have to let billionaires steal from us apparently.

Yes, you too could pretend AI slop is real. You’ve been punked.

Truth. This is the actual train...that runs just 1.8 miles. It's way prettier than the AI slop image.

Maybe, maybe not.

if the US did solar or more passenger trains, the politicians would lose too much money in their oil stocks.

I would like one of these for America. Even more.

By far not enough energy to power a train. This is none sense. Maybe it is enough to power the air conditioning.

I’d move there if it weren’t for the spiders.

Come join us, the spiders all react squishily to shoes!

Thanks, mate, but I don’t have a shoe big enough for a huntsman. 😬

Huntsman spiders don’t grow that big in Australia, and their bite doesn’t really affect humans much. All the bad ones are much smaller, and none of them want to be around us. I assure you, they’re not a problem.

Stop teasing me with a good time! 😂

Bravo!

This is the kind of idea that Trump wants to kill because it would interfere with his extortionist deal with Big Oil.

Unfortunately the man in charge is miserable and wants other to feel miserable too. Always the victim!

Don't forget corrupt automotive lobbies preventing public transportation options as well. We can't even own economical kei trucks because American automotive companies are scum.

I want this for US. US meaning United States. Criticize all you want over the money spent to get it, then don’t bother riding on it. There will be millions of others who will ride it.

Impressive, as a current American I am disgusted with our government.

Australian here and sadly, that image isn’t helpful. The train exists, but it doesn’t look like that and it doesn’t really go anywhere.

Thanks for the update Aussie. Seems most of the civilized world have a much more modern rail system than here in America. Been to your fine country while in US Navy in 1972.

Ours is mixed. There’s still some quite old stock rolling around in Sydney, but I’ve been following updates in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. The new line in Sydney looks very impressive!

But Russian Gas & Oil

MAGA: But how do they run at night?

THAT would be great if America was like that!

Mostly on the military actually. Look at all the ugly pie charts.

Also remember, climate change doesn't exist here