Living in Alaska like this is feels to me way more sustainable than living in a city with millions of people - might be wrong though, I guess it’s a question of scale.

When you say subsidised you mean the state is paying for essentials here?

The cost of bringing a large, heavy and loaded freight train to a standstill in the middle of nowhere so that a single passenger can board is non-trivial.

There’s definitely an economic reason that stations exist.

The ticket they have is subsidised by the money the state-owned corporation makes from freight.

I've seen a couple of videos and I think you've missed some information, at least if we're talking about the same thing. The train is specific for a bunch of flag stop people along it, small locomotive and only a few cars. It might not be as sustainable as walking to the store but it's probably on par with driving an SUV to Costco weekly, especially when a lot of stuff at Costco is trucked not rail.

I just think the following two things are mutually exclusive:

- requiring a private diesel train, operated and subsidised by the government for a economically unviable number of people, in order to survive

- living off grid in a sustainable manner

To me off-grid sustainability isn’t just “carbon neutral”, it’s being able to exist somewhere without assistance from the wider society.

And what amounts to a private train is an egregious amount of assistance, IMO.

Yeah I'm not arguing that this is an eco paradise and that we should all copy the model. I don't love subsidies either but I far prefer little ones like this to big ones where several big companies benefit and we're all paying for their profits.

Do you see anything in common between this Alaskan (who seems to be still living a typical consumerist lifestyle, just in a different form) and what 100r are doing? Or do you just have a problem with people interested in “off grid” solutions and you’ve come here to complain?

Like how is this Alaska thing relevant at all?

Do you think that “off grid” communities in Africa are doing harm somehow?

There's a range of on/off-grid. Some are just on-grid people living in unpopulated areas, if one wants to put it that way (but it all depends on what makes a person "on" the grid).

Possibly, if one only buys very basic supplies (food and basic medicine), it could be considered in a grey area while still being sustainable.