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Why don't Americans ride trains?
The Economist ^ | 29 Aug 2013 | Economist

Posted on 05/09/2014 9:49:39 PM PDT by Cronos

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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

The Willie Green reference come from his constant posting passenger rail threads. See the link below and reply 65 by the owner at the lower link.

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:williegreen/index?brevity=full;tab=comments

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2607597/posts?page=65#65


201 posted on 05/10/2014 7:53:33 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (The Second Amendment is NOT about the right to hunt. It IS a right to shoot tyrants.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

The loss of the train infrastructure, or the electric trolly’s, is the saddest part, because those are billions to replace in today’s rebuilding costs and it won’t happen.

Whereas, ten years ago in Ohio the people could go across town for fifty cents, probably costs a lot more now. The city that kept up their infrastructure preserved the cheapest, and cleanest form of public transportation. Today to rebuild is not cost effective nor could the people afford to ride, if those costs were passed on...’it was a missed opportunity about the trolley train removal’ and in exchange their diesel, pollution, buses that they bought cheap are now expensive to maintain, replace, and meet regulations.

I would say the San Francisco Peninsula was best seen by that system you described...too bad.


202 posted on 05/10/2014 7:57:10 AM PDT by Kackikat
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To: Cronos
This is why trains are not practical in most US cities for most travelers.

Yes!

And our trains no longer go to most towns, as they once did.

The trains themselves are far slower than they once were because, for one thing, the tracks are no longer banked around curves because they are maximized for freight. The infrastructure for passenger rail is gone ... the gov-subsidized hi-speed passenger rail of Europe doesn't run at 200 mph on wooden sleepers!

AMTRAK? As you point out it leaves you high and dry miles short of the destination ... and is damned expensive. Yes, we need our cars. However, the Socialists have determined that the auto is not good for us and see no reason to keep the price of fuel within reason, while they strive to limit production.

203 posted on 05/10/2014 8:00:25 AM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Take congress in 2014. Have a Constitutional Convention of the States. Save the Republic.)
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To: Cronos

because trains are inefficient to a society of liberty and private property. (property of ones person, thoughts, mobility)

Trains are pork and crony projects. trains DON NOT reduce congestion or reduce traffic. This article seems a false flag effort to push the US to herd its citizens like cattle into corruption crime.

Trains are about worker drones. This keeps in track with new company starts DROPPING and more companies closing.

The governments that control the trains want only big company employees NOT individuals.

Trains control where you can travel. They limit mobility choice. (property of ones thought and travel)


204 posted on 05/10/2014 8:01:42 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Cronos

Actually if you combine regional train travel with local bus service, you can get within a 20 minute walk to just about anywhere within any US city with a population of over 100,000.


205 posted on 05/10/2014 8:10:12 AM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: Kackikat

all passenger train projects, light, faux high speed, passenger, is just crony pork projects for politicians to simulate government “making” jobs.

(see USSR jobs paying people to be fence posts)

It is also a way for insiders to magically buy just the right land to sell for rail right of ways.


206 posted on 05/10/2014 8:10:34 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: justa-hairyape

100000?

That is a small town and has no need for rail.


207 posted on 05/10/2014 8:12:54 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: goodnesswins

olympia NP

The Ferry from Victoria BC crosses to Port Angeles WA. There is a company there that has a Budget rent a car agency, a hotel and a bus line.

You take the ferry and stay in their hotel right at the station, rent a car to visit the park for several days and then return to their hotel. The next morning their bus takes you to the Amtrack station in seattle

As experienced auto/rv travelers, it is a little disconcerting to rely on others and public transit......but that is the adventure


208 posted on 05/10/2014 8:22:45 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... History is a process, not an event)
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To: bert

You have your rain gear packed....right?


209 posted on 05/10/2014 8:23:55 AM PDT by goodnesswins (R.I.P. Doherty, Smith, Stevens, Woods.)
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To: dfwgator

well, to be fair, my picture I used is one I took myself :)


210 posted on 05/10/2014 8:26:15 AM PDT by RaceBannon (Lk 16:31 And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the prophets neither will theybe persuaded)
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To: dfwgator
I'll see that and raise you one Warrior...


211 posted on 05/10/2014 8:32:59 AM PDT by RaceBannon (Lk 16:31 And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the prophets neither will theybe persuaded)
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To: cdcdawg

Exactly! There is a significant difference in culture that leads to different population densities over a given area.


212 posted on 05/10/2014 9:00:03 AM PDT by wjr123 (Silly paranoid misinformation.)
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To: longtermmemmory

Trains to Greyhound. Greyhound to trains. Whatever works. Then use the local bus routes. You will learn when you get too old too drive. Not there yet myself.


213 posted on 05/10/2014 9:01:13 AM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: dfwgator

On a lot of routes, yes. The security required and the remoteness of the airport from the city center make flying much less convenient and often not much quicker.


214 posted on 05/10/2014 9:12:36 AM PDT by wideawake
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To: Arrowhead1952

That guy wasn’t the Basketball player, was he?


215 posted on 05/10/2014 9:13:34 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: Jim Robinson

And don’t forget, too unreliable and too union.


216 posted on 05/10/2014 9:14:44 AM PDT by Hulka
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To: SamAdams76

As a kid growing up in the greater Detroit area, my friends and I would walk the tracks for “short cuts” to avoid areas that weren’t the safest to walk through.


217 posted on 05/10/2014 9:16:43 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: alexander_busek

I figured someone would notice that from the links I put in that post.

Competing train operators are also running on Deutsche Bahn’s rails; however, DB has leeway to interfere with their advertising, ticket sales and timetable availability at train stations. (Similar to how the Pennsylvania Railroad did the same thing to the Jersey Central Railroad in Atlantic City going back to the 30s and 40s.)


218 posted on 05/10/2014 9:20:47 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: longtermmemmory

That’s only been true in the USA since the end of WWII. But it is also true of airlines and bus companies.

Why is it necessary for the federal government to control the highways, though?


219 posted on 05/10/2014 9:22:54 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Cronos

What killed the railroads? The interstate highway system. Whose idea was that?


220 posted on 05/10/2014 9:26:09 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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