On Debian, but not on Time
It was kind of interesting to see this the other day, on the train from Monselice to Padova:
That's a Debian system, kernel 2.6.8.1, which appears to have some problems booting. That's not the only problem with the train system in Italy, unfortunately:
My Padova->Monselice train, roughly a 20 minute train ride, was 65 minutes late, and would end up being nearly an hour and a half late. Ouch! To be fair, the train system in the US is actually even worse, if that can be believed. And in Austria, while they run on time, they're so expensive and don't run often, so that it's often much more convenient to drive.
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about {{count}} hours later:
Last time I've been in Italy I got to see this: http://photo.kamineko.org/main.php?g2_itemId=911 and this: http://photo.kamineko.org/main.php?g2_itemId=914 can't really tell if it was Debian though but my TAV train was almost 2 hours late ;)
about {{count}} hours later:
at least it did boot! I got this on a Venezia-Bologna train: http://flickr.com/photos/godog/3120608894/ and this at Roma Termini http://flickr.com/photos/godog/2890186482/in/set-72157600685738862/
{{count}} days later:
Outside of a couple of dedicated rail corridors (Boston to New York to Washington, D.C.), passenger trains in the States share the rails with freight trains. As the freight companies own the rails, their trains get priority, so if there's a conflict, the passenger trains sit and wait, even though passenger trains are lots faster.
A few years ago, my partner and I rode on some trains in the eastern U.S. We started with an overnight run from Chicago to Syracuse, New York, with a sleeping compartment, which was on-time and also lots of fun. Then we went from Syracuse to Boston, which was much less fun, as the train had to stop for a freight and then had some issue that required them to turn off the power, so we sat for a couple of hours with no air conditioning (and without openable windows) on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year (somewhere around 90 F, and muggy). Eventually we limped into Boston, where we found we'd missed our connection to Providence, RI. Amtrak gave us a taxi voucher, and we made the rest of that trip by car.
Then we went down to New York, which was fine, and from New York to Washington on the Accela, which is roughly equivalent to every train I've ever ridden on in the UK.
In California, a proposition passed to fund a major high-speed rail initiative that will cover most of the state. I'm really hoping that happens, as I'm not a fan of airports (flying, fine; airports, yuck) and it sounds like the time on a train from where we are to the Bay Area would be about the same as getting to the airport, getting through security, sitting around in the airport, and flying in.