[kato13]

Some information I found.

I decided to look up derailment rates as while collisions and fatalities make news, derailments are probably the most disruptive traffic wise.

The US was certainly out of it's worst phase (derailment wise) by the time of the twilight war.


source
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/13/8598703...t-train-safety


In 2001 (the earliest year I can find comparisons)
the US had 1.21 main line derailments per million train miles traveled.
Australia had 1.84 (Had to convert kilometers to miles)
Canada (CPR) had 1.44
Canada (CN) had 1.76

European reporting that I have found focuses on fatalities not total derailments so I could not include those numbers.

Sources
http://railtec.illinois.edu/articles...kan%202004.pdf

https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/28354/rr_2008007.pdf

https://www.tc.gc.ca/media/documents...ty/TranSys.pdf


The US does have its weaknesses. A greater percentage of derailments seem to be due to infrastructure failure, which could lead to longer term delays in recovery of a line. The long empty spaces in our country also lend themselves to sabotage. I'm my game world Spetsnaz are extremely active in rail sabotage as they see that as the way to disrupt the US military without direct confrontation (allowing for a greater number of actions).

However from an infrastructure standpoint I don't see the US being radically different from other nations as to say that it is significantly more likely to have a breakdown (as it might have been in the late 70s early 80s).