From the comments section
If I take a train from Dublin to Galway, I have within 20 minutes' walk of either terminus hundreds of bars, restaurants, offices, and other attractions at my disposal. If I take a train from say, Orange County to Phoenix, I have within 20 minutes' walk about 5 freeway overpasses and lots of parking lots.and
Most of the US is a suburban hellscape, with anything worth doing at least 20 minutes' drive away. This is largely the result of ridiculous parking minimums (forcing business owners to subsidize private automobile storage) and NIMBYs fighting denser development because of parking concerns (forcing the government - i.e. all of us, to subsidize private automobile storage). The true irony of this is that it doesn't even ease traffic; people spend most of their time driving not through interesting things but.. automobile infrastructure (after all about 70% of LA's surface area is pavement or buildings dedicated to automobiles).
Most American cities are laid out differently than in Europe (other than older cities in the NE corridor). They are sprawling and spread out. Suburban areas have houses with huge lots. Stores are massive, like Walmart, and have huge parking lots. This makes mass transport within cities impractical. Mass transport only works in places with high population density. Therefore, people might we willing to take a train between nearby cities, like Dallas and Houston or LA and SF, but once they get to their destination, they'd have no way to get anywhere without a car. Alternatives could be taxi (expensive if you have more than a few limited destinations), shared ride van (slow), and car rental (again, rather expensive). Plus the train station itself may be far from your true destination within the city (driving across LA can take hours).
This is why trains are not practical in most US cities for most travelers.
Free travel is the ideal. Anything less is subject to getting there on time via a vehicle.
Too expensive, too slow, too remote.
Willie Green Memorial Ping.
Because Hitler loved Trains. Next question.
Because they tell you where you can go, and when you can go there. DONE!
Trains don’t go where my dog and I want to go.
Another factor- driving in cars makes Americans less susceptible to terrorist attack AND Government control. When you can control the transit, the Government has its people in convenient, tight little boxes which can be coerced and/or terrorized. THIS is why Obama, Democrats, and other anti-American far-left extremist radical groups keep pushin for Public transportation.
Well, in the OLDEN DAYS, driving a car represented independence, freedom, romance, status, and well deserved white privilege, black privilege, Italian privilege, and any other ethnicity who worked hard in the American system and earned it. Trains are cool...but we used to be ‘exceptional’.
Because I can get in my car when I want to and go places that trains can’t. I’m on my own schedule, that is the American way.
In Germany and Italy all the major cities are within two hours train time or less from another major city, and every city has a compact downtown with a centrally located train station and available public transportation.
if I want to go to Atlantic city, the trains are twice as long as driving because there's no direct route -- you have to go through Philadelphia.
I would ride the train everywhere if there was a car waiting for me when I got there.
Because we don’t have to.
Cars are freedom, and even very poor people in the US can avail themselves of the highway. and they can take their kids and their gear.
I love train rides, but I never want the roads, and cheap used cars, to go away. They are a leg up in the world, not just a means to a destination.
Trains are successful in certain corridors with the right distance and shape. Take St Louis to Chicago, for instance, or New York to DC.
Other regions, not so much.
They stink!
So first, I don't ride trains because I don't trust unions to run them safely.
Second, I don't ride trains because they're incredibly expensive for long trips.
Third, I don't ride trains because they're always late and never deliver me where I need to go. And because I don't trust unions.
It’s because willie green was taken to the gulag on the last train