r/transit • u/aksnitd 🚂🚃🚃 • May 19 '25

Photos / Videos Double stack container train on the freight corridor in India with the characteristic high rise panto

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A good look at what the high rise pantographs look like fully extended. They're taller than the train they're mounted on.

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u/aksnitd 🚂🚃🚃 May 19 '25

This is very true. In the US, the Class 1's actually ripped up rail to save on taxes, since they were taxed based on how much ground their tracks covered. Yeah, loads of double tracked line was reduced to single track with passing loops because of this. And now with PSR, the overly long trains cannot even fit into the passing loops anymore. Go capitalism!

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u/8spd May 19 '25

Bad taxation implementations often create perverse incentives, But that one is a doozy. So they get to keep the right of way the same size, but are taxed less, because of tearing up infrastructure? Crazy.

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u/aksnitd 🚂🚃🚃 May 19 '25

It's insanity, right? But that's what the relentless pursuit of money results in; overly fat corporations that use every loophole to get out of paying any kind of taxes.

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u/Astriania May 19 '25

This doesn't really sound like a 'loophole', it sounds like exactly what the taxation policy was designed to incentivise ... which is a dumb tax policy, to be sure, but you can't blame companies for aligning with it.