Map Enthusiasts

I’ve read reports of 300k people, though of course with it being Soviet Russia… Nobody knows for sure.

The records were opened in the 90s, any reports before that were little more than SWAGs. After the 90s, they had the names of the workers involved so you can have very exact estimates.

Lol to me that’s a medium sized city. Second biggest city of my country is fewer than 120k. We don’t have high speed rail, but we will eventually, between the capital/biggest city and the rest of Europe. For now, rail still exists for most towns above 20k.

OK, but there's 100 cities in America bigger than that. But also it's simply the smallest Chinese town I've spent time in, I'm certain smaller towns have trains. The density was somewhat greater than the average American town, but it meant you could take a public electric scooter or bike across town in 5 minutes instead of 10 minutes.

This sounds stupid inefficient, but it’s actually not. Build a railroad to a destination with daily ridership <10? Very inefficient Build a railroad with actual usage, but also serve stops in between that have nearly no daily ridership?

Yes and no? As far as I am aware the JRs don't build platforms~~ anymore.~~ in towns with small ridership, but due to japan's rural population crisis, they simply have platforms in shrinking towns, and if it's already built it's cheap to maintain. Low or negative interest loans with regulations to punish companies for providing substandard service could facilitate the construction in theory, but I am not aware of any specific location where that's occurred.

Buses actually suck for inter-city transit, trains are way better (and at these speeds and distances, cars are OK too). Are you sure motorbikes aren’t allowed on highways at all? In most countries in the world, they are. Mopeds are not, though - since mopeds can’t go as fast as highway traffic usually does.

Vietnam has some political, social, and geographical issues that make building both city and intercity rail very difficult.

Mopeds are not, though - since mopeds can’t go as fast as highway traffic usually does.

Except for CT08 and I think CT10? outside Hanoi, you 100% cannot take a motorbike on a CTXX. There's other major roads you can take bikes on, and I've taken my bike on a highway that was under construction, but don't take them on the other CTs.

Presumably those countries have a minimum speed limit. VN just bans anything with <4 wheels. I can tell from personal experience and word of mouth, even if you're doing 100+, you will be stopped and lucky if they let you off without a shakedown. I was lucky enough they believed I got forced on by traffic and was trying to find an exit.

This kinda sucks because it increases the time to get between some places by over 2x