Posted on 05/09/2014 9:49:39 PM PDT by Cronos
What does that have to do with EFFICIENCY??????????
I guess that with your warped sense of logic that Houston, LA, New York City and other large cities with public transportation should have crappy, wasteful and woefully inefficient public transportation systems.
I bet the U.S. Postal system is your model of efficiency too.
The reason people here don’t ride trains is that they are not profitable. If they were, there would be passenger tracks next to the freight tracks. The Interstate system shut down most passenger trains. Trains only go on the rails, and not where people want to go.
I had a coworker who went to pick his son up in San Diego after he finished his military training. Took him over three days each way. He had to go through St Louis from Texas to get there. He later said “I wish I’d have driven to get him”.
LOL.
exempli gratia
I firmly believe “rail trails” are just another example of government violations of the laws.
That land was supposed to revert back to previous owners or title holders if the railroads stopped using it.
Nor does throwing millions of taxpayers dollars into a place where you can walk your dog or people ride bicycles thill me.
If I added correctly, you spent 10-1/2 days on a train. That sounds like a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime adventure. But it’s hard for train corporations to build a solid business case around people taking once-in-a-lifetime adventure joyrides.
Freight trains are owned by private industry. Amtrak has a monopoly on passenger train travel. If there was competition and private passenger train service, I would gladly travel on Taggart Transcontinental.
My son won the county geography bee when he was in middle school. The prize was a free Amtrak trip to the state finals in Chapel Hill. To get there from our Western NC county via Amtrak required driving to Greenville, SC, catching the train to Washington DC, changing trains and then heading back south to Durham, NC.
Amtrak is geared to benefit the NE Corridor and residents thereof who want to get to south Florida. I suppose the LA to SF and NE Corridor to Chicago get a bit of traffic. Amtrak is useless to Flyover country and too expensive.
Put good high speed buses on an express lane on the Interstates with terminals at major shopping malls and they would dominate the less than 200-250 mile intercity travel. At least until the TSA screwed things up.
People used to ride freight trains between small towns, in a caboose or passenger car. Lawsuits and government regulation ended the practice.
In Europe, it’s actually less expensive to fly between cities than taking a train.
The people who are changing the world are the people working on self driven automobiles. That’s the future of transportation. Not these gussied up 19th century rattletraps.
Next week we are s off on an adventure
We are drIving up I 81 two Syracuse and Amtrak to Toronto,thence on the Canadian to Vancouver then from Victoria across the ferry to Washjington,thence after four days in the national park by bus to Seattle and Amtrak back to Syracuse
I’ve lost trAck of the cost but it is what she wanted for our 50th anniversary
I’m waiting for the Jetson’s car, that folds up into a briefcase.
Because it is cheaper to go some other way. I have checked into train travel a time or two. It has always been even more expensive then going by air. And since, unlike many of the countries mentioned, we own personal cars it is also easier to drive.
Well...cause we have had FREEDOM?
Have fun...I plan for us to do similar 20 years down the road..
Only in the opposite direction...what national park are you visiting?
Today there’s only one rail line running down the San Francisco Peninsula. In the early 1900s, there was a number of spurs around the south bay in addition to inter-city electric lines which made it easy to get around. By 1931, the system had 34 streetcars on 90 miles of track. Then the automobile took off and that was the beginning of the end of the rail lines. The “Vasona Branch” connected Palo Alto to the Saratoga area, but it was ripped out in 1964 to build Foothill Expressway. There were rumors that Goodyear had something to do with the decision to end rail service. The old station in Los Altos is a gorgeous building and has housed a number of businesses since train service ended. It was just renovated and looks great.
After reading this whole thread, I want to say that your comments are the ones that I totally agree with. I’m not as savvy on train historical information, but I know that if the Federal Government was not in the way...we could have great rail transportation. Both passenger and freight.
I’ve seen about 70% of the USA, but there are a couple of places like Maine, and Washington State, etc, that I would like to visit.....and I don’t want to fly or take my car.
That said, it isn’t a matter of autos vs trains as some make it sound. We need both, our independence with small economical cars, and we need a great system of travel without having to expose our bodies to the TSA.
For me travel is about ‘the journey’ and not just ‘the destination’, which is what the latter... Airline travel is about. A Train can give you comfort and a visual trip without the road rage traffic and the stress of driving.
Your explanations really are what could change a negative into a positive. Amtrack is being made by our government to be like the Orient Express, an elite form of travel not everyone can afford. That’s not what we need....but it’s what they want. It’s a disappointment and money pit.
I believe Ireland has had a problem with loss of train and bus service, and with gas so expensive there, it has caused a hardship for their people to get around....government being the problem as well? Some bus and train service to Dublin, but not the real daily services needed.
Thanks for all the information because we need to see where the US missed it, and how it could be fixed with the right people in our political environment. Too many see public transportation as becoming more like EU, when it’s a practical matter. Cars are not necessarily more cheaper to operate, and young people need a way to get around without a vehicle, in towns big enough to handle a system of public transportation that makes sense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.