They spent money in Germany about 15 years ago on a high-speed rail project from Koln to the Frankfurt Airport. The project was supposed to demonstrate how successful this could be.
What they ended up running was a one-car deal big enough for sixty-odd passengers. The 2.5 hour railway trip was cut to roughly 58 minutes. It’s never made any real money....strictly businessmen going on trips out of the airport. When you figure the going rate for the trip...it makes better sense to take regular rail or a bus. I doubt if in an entire day....they transport more than 500 passengers.
It would be different if we were talking about NY City to Washington. There’s enough passengers to make this economically feasible.
MARTA in Atlanta was a grand experiment that taxed surrounding Metro counties 1% sales tax to “get this transport to the people!”
One of its earlier rail lines was to build a line out to Perry Homes so the welfare recipients could get to their entitlement offices quicker.
It took YEARS and YEARS for them to realize that leeches did not profit make, having had the temerity to even elect a welfare queen to the MARTA board, and they finally started constructing rail lines to places that had paying (unsubsidized) passengers.
Don’t know about it now, don’t even care about it. All I’m sure about now is that I’ve moved so far off its rail lines and bus lines and interstates that it isn’t my problem any more.