Posted on 02/04/2016 7:24:48 PM PST by rockinqsranch
People are a great inconvenience to transport. They demand heat, soft seats, room to move, bathrooms and the requisite plumbing, lights, food, and water even.
They don't want the cars bouncing and slamming around, which demands smoother roadbeds, welded steel rail, heavier, stiffer cars, with sound insulation and A/C. Now they are even asking for WiFi service. Every extra pound of all this frippery costs.
Grain in covered gondolas, coal in gondolas, boxed freight in containers, they aren't all whiney about it, taking too long, getting side tracked, being hours or days late.
Passenger service has NEVER shown a profit, right back to 1850. The US mail service covered the extra costs, up until they changed their whole distribution paradigm in the late 40's and early 50's. When passenger rail service is 100% Socialist financed, and the Feds re-establish all the connections to smaller towns, then, perhaps, European style rail service might become a reality.
With a US Merchant Marine crew only???
I doubt it.
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