America's Super Long Freight Trains


It's fairly common knowledge that America's freight trains are long, but how long?

Union Pacific railroad  runs some of the longest trains at 3.8 miles (or 6.1 km) long!

Long trains are also slow. A 3-mile train traveling at 30 mph will take a full 6 minutes to clear a road/rail crossing.

Wall Street Journal: These monster trains regularly cut off local roads, delaying residents, school buses and emergency vehicles. Some states have introduced bills to limit train length to 1.6 miles but can’t enforce them because they’re barred from interfering with interstate commerce. 


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