Canada's 100-Foot Freight Railway To Nowhere

Half as Interesting · 1.9M views · 2021 · 5:25

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Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends the channel for short, wry videos on obscure topics, and this one is cited as an example of gaming rules via a loophole.

What it is

A short, sarcastic Half as Interesting video about a tiny freight railway in Canada built to exploit a shipping regulation loophole. It explains how a track just 100 feet long counted as a railway.

Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2022 to 2023.

What Hacker News said

Recommends krallja · 2022-02 · on “200-foot-long railway to nowhere is a brilliant shipping loophole”

There was a video earlier this month on Half As Interesting about this railway: [this video] HAI makes interesting, short, sarcastic videos about obscure topics that HNers will probably enjoy.

Recommends AntonyGarand · 2023-05 · on “Absurd 200-Foot ‘Railway’ Demolished After Court Closes Shipping Loophole”

I liked this short video from "Half as interesting" on Youtube on the railway itself if you're looking for a video on the subject. [0] [this video]

Cites bombcar · 2022-12 · on “Europe Makes Shipping Vessels Pay for Carbon Emissions”

It'll be interesting to see how it's gamed, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try - you will get things like this: [this video] but they can be corrected for later. One solution would be to switch the tax to a tariff on goods that can be avoided if you prove reduced carbon travel. So if your goods are from China, you get the 100% whatever it is, but if you can show that they travelled from China on whatever is considered acceptable, it drops to 20% or 0% or similar.