Skip to content
HHackerTube.videoSurprise me

Freight Trains: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Freight Trains: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) on HackerTube: recommended by 1 Hacker News commenter across 1 month, 2023–2024.

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment on freight trains and railroads, covering how profit-driven practices undermine safety. It touches on longer trains and shrinking crews.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Cited as a solid overview of the railroad safety problem, including the push toward longer trains and single-person crews.

people recommended it
1
separate months
1
strong recommendations
0
discussed on HN
2023–2024
“This show covers the railroad problem pretty well”
— hnlmorg, Aug 2024, in “Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours”

What HN commenters said

3 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

hnlmorgAug 2024Recommends

Why do you find it so hard to believe that this isn’t just a result of greed? It’s not like those who are bleeding that infra dry are consumers of the service itself. And couple that with a complete lack of regulation, it means they can continue to bleed the service with literally no consequences for their actions. This show covers the railroad problem pretty well: ▶ this video …but I think it’s fair to say the rot introduced by profit at all costs goes waaaay beyond this specific infra. You could apply similar complaints for plenty of other industries too, such as Boeing.

in “Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours” · View on HN

ChrisMarshallNYJan 2024Cites it

John Oliver did a segment on trains[0]. He noted that rail companies are actively trying to lengthen trains, and reduce the staff to 1. [0] ▶ this video

in “Train robbery for Amazon packages? More common than you think” · View on HN

VikingCoderDec 2023Cites it

I think you do not appreciate that some people have jobs that don't give them adequate support to be awesome. I just watched the most recent Last Week Tonight, where they went in depth on Freight Trains [1]. Specifically they talked about 3 mile long trains that currently only have two operators - one conductor and one engineer - and the industry is trying to cut it down to one. That's just an analogy for software development. But I've definitely seen people be over-worked and under-supported. [1]: ▶ this video

in “The NSA advises move to memory-safe languages” · View on HN

Topics & tags