Posted on 05/09/2014 9:49:39 PM PDT by Cronos
AMERICA has by far the largest rail network in the world, with more than twice as much track as China. But it lags far behind other first-world countries in ridership. Instead of passengers, most of America's massive rail network is used to carry freight. Why don't Americans ride trains?
..the Japanese, the Swiss, the French, the Danes, the Russians, the Austrians, the Ukrainians, the Belarussians and the Belgians all accounted for more than 1,000 passenger-kilometres by rail in 2011; Americans accounted for 80. Amtrak carries 31m passengers per year. Mozambique's railways carried 108m passengers in 2011.
There are many reasons why Americans don't ride the rails as often as their European cousins. Most obviously, America is bigger than most European countries. Outside the northeast corridor, the central Texas megalopolis, California and the eastern Midwest, density is sometimes too low to support intercity train travel. Underinvestment, and a preference for shiny new visions over boring upgrades, has not helped. Most American passenger trains travel on tracks that are owned by freight companies. That means most trains have to defer to freight services, leading to lengthy delays that scare off passengers who want to arrive on time.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
BNSF runz trainz across Mont.
Montana.
$4.40 per gallon obamagas.
Trains suck.
And, on a schedule not your own.
Owning property in, around and near metro areas makes one more aware of the forces at play. Fewer know the difference between self-subsistence and serfdom as land ownership becomes rarer.
Mass urbanization has resulted in a citizenry that has forgotten how to be self-sufficient.
Now you board at either Jack London Square or Emeryville, both with ample nearby dining and other services.
That’s a really interesting statistic. Source?
Americans like their elbow room and not living on top of one another. And packet switched networks are more efficient than circuit switched ones. Trains are like a circuit switched network, cars like a packet switched one. For most of the US, trains are a 19th Century solution to 21st Century problems.
We are an automobile society.
I’ve ridden Amtrak across this great country of mine.
There are a lot of places, now, where the train USED to STOP, but now it just goes through.
I live in Central Louisiana. I have to drive South 3 hours to Lafayette, SouthEast 4 hours to New Orleans, 4 hour North to Shreveport, to go to the train station!!!!
Nowadays, the gotterdammerung TSA is waiting to feel you up before you board a train. What good is that?
We’re a long ways away from stuff. I can drive from Italy to Belgium and still not cover as many miles as it is from one end of California to the other.
True ... Most American passenger trains travel on tracks that are owned by freight companies.
Not true ... that means most trains have to defer to freight services, leading to lengthy delays that scare off passengers who want to arrive on time.
Passenger trains, Amtrak for instance, get priority over freight trains.
I stopped reading right there.....
But! Mussolini made the run on time!
The TSA isn’t going to let me board a train with my 1911 like I can with my F150. That’s why.
World’s best cabbies in that town too. They take a lot of the up-market and mid-distance commuters. London works because of the density, the multiple transportation options, and the anti-automobile government policy. San Francisco’s somewhat similar. I lived there for a year without a car, and didn’t miss it.
It’s cultural too. I doubt we’ll ever see American cab drivers biking around town learning “The Knowledge”.
Plus, parking at any hotel in Manhattan is now at least $45/day. Therefore, if you are going to be there for more than a couple days it is probably cheaper to take the train into Penn Station. Also, don’t even think about driving a Suburban into NYC. I had a friend who did that. The Marriott charged him $110/night to park because it is an oversized vehicle.
I have liked riding trains since I was a little kid. I have always thought that Amtrak should be parted out to individual railroads and the Fed Gov should contract with them to provide passenger service. Private rail is more efficient
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