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 ...
Most American cities are laid out differently than in Europe
Being able to rebuild from scratch after we've bombed them to recycled aggregate base does wonders for rail layouts.
Bentleys weren’t very affordable back then either. Never mind the Speed Six model being designed as a racing car.
because we are individualists.
we don’t take well to the sheep lifestyle.
europeans may be perfectly happy being shepherded where their leaders want them to go.
that’s not our style.
Judy Garland - On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S87evkiu4iA
One of the contenders there is hobbled by the federal government.
I don’t recall any TGV version of Le Train Bleu. Wonder why not?
For individualists, we seem just fine and dandy with the government taking care of our road infrastructure and taxing us for it.
Well geez, I feel like I could deal with that, if I felt that way, that is.
“Even freight trains hauled by steam locos used to be faster than the freights running today.”
100 mph+ passenger service between major American cities was routine before WWII. Powered by steam locomotives.
But to do this requires a major roadbed investment and today no American railroad has track that can handle speeds like that.
Nope, public transportation is impractical in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles because they are spread out over hundred of square miles. Trains are practicla only in compact cities like in Europe.
Yes, and federal regulations induces an excessive cost burden on private companies doing that. No private railroad can just pick up a 125-mph lightweight tilting diesel-multiple-unit train from (let’s say) Siemens and run it between city pairs of its choice at the top speed of the vehicle—all because of federal regulation with respect to track classes, track signaling and even “crashworthiness” of the vehicle. Lots of mandates having to do with railroad crossings, automatic train stop systems, signals displayed in the engineer’s cab, dead man’s features, ad nauseam. Even the existence of Amtrak complicates matters.
Private railroads rebuild roadbed all the time, especially to handle increased freight business; if the feds would get out of the way, they could do it with passenger trains too.
You radical! : )
Michigan bought NS track from Dearborn to KZoo to give to Amtrak.
Did you get to squeeze any tits along the way?
Free parking made America Great.
Because they are not Randians?
Take a look at what Buffett’s railroads are doing. Granted, that’s in the sphere of crony capitalism, but Buffett isn’t asking for “feddy-bucks” for it. Even Union Pacific invests significant amounts of its own capital in the railroads its running.
And like I said, the government really needs to get out of the way. What with the sick state of affairs Detroit faces, the speed upgrade for Chicago-Michigan trains really is a vanity project.
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