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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

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: carsstink; governmentstinks; planesstink; rail; trainsstink; trucksstink
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To: Cronos

For short travel/commutes, trains only work in densely populated areas. That way it is financially feasible to have many stops and available, inexpensive transport to get to a final destination.

Any regular that would have additional expensive transportation to get to a final destination makes it an unlikely choice.

Long distance travel on trains is ruined by the time to get from one large city to another. I considered a trip to Florida a year ago on train, and it was almost a 2 day affair. By plane, it’s a few hours. By my own vehicle, it’s a day and a half and I have my transportation with me.

Cost and convenience seem the bottom line to me.


221 posted on 05/10/2014 9:26:53 AM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

Eisenhower’s. To ease military transports during the height of the Cold War.


222 posted on 05/10/2014 9:28:17 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Olog-hai

yes and passenger trains all carried people to shore points in NJ. almost every older shore town still has a train station. I think some of the railroad infrastructure got beat to death by military use during WW2 and the car took off afterward leaving trains behind.


223 posted on 05/10/2014 9:28:21 AM PDT by kvanbrunt2 (civil law: commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong Blackstone Commentaries I p44)
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To: Arrowhead1952; Rides_A_Red_Horse

Yes, ol’ Willie had a an obsession with passenger rail (especially commuter rail) that bordered on being a special kind of OCD.


224 posted on 05/10/2014 9:28:28 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: DH

You ought to move there and enjoy the excessive British taxes that allow the wonderful mass transit system and everything that comes with it.


225 posted on 05/10/2014 9:29:40 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: RaceBannon

The NYC subway sure is a rail system that became government-owned sooner than others in the USA. Before that, private companies had more diverse ideas, e.g. to run freight on the subway at night, even to run commuter service into the subway system (the Long Island RR planned to do this once and even built the MP41 cars to fit the tight dimensions of the Interborough Rapid Transit system).


226 posted on 05/10/2014 9:31:32 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: jjotto

Doing a long tour to the UK as an American Serviceman wasn’t bad at all. Seeing what the “Crown’s Subjects” put up with told me that I would definitely return to the U.S.


227 posted on 05/10/2014 9:33:08 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: dfwgator

Yes. My point is that it was government involvement in transportation that killed passenger rail. It’s more than a little ironic.


228 posted on 05/10/2014 9:33:39 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: Cronos
I know! I know!

Because Americans are selfish and only care about themselves, which is why we need government to make prices "necessarily skyrocket" so they can be forced onto trains!

I'm right, aren't I?

229 posted on 05/10/2014 9:33:39 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government." --Tacitus)
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

And the motorways. Not to mention the airports and ferry ports.

Most likely privatization (to the degree it was done) helped save Britain’s intercity rail system, though; before that, it was “British Rail”, a 100-percent government-owned affair.


230 posted on 05/10/2014 9:33:45 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Cronos

Really, it is impossible to discuss transportation rationally. We can’t see the true costs and benefits. All we see is a fog of government subsidy, government preferential and punitive taxation, and waves and waves of regulation.

We’re just blind men groping in a government induced darkness.


231 posted on 05/10/2014 9:39:45 AM PDT by DManA
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To: JoeProBono

It’s a line from the movie Silver Streak.


232 posted on 05/10/2014 9:41:58 AM PDT by Veggie Todd (The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. TJ)
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To: kvanbrunt2

The railroad serving the north Jersey shore originally went south of Bay Head to Seaside Park, crossed Barnegat Bay and went on to Camden; that was the old Philadelphia & Long Branch line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. A lot of roads were built over abandoned railroads; the one I just mentioned is now the southbound lanes of NJ route 35 through Manahawkin and Lavallette.

The state of NJ used to have rail service to Ocean City and Cape May until the early 80s; they got rid of it when the federal government ordered Conrail to stop running passenger trains.


233 posted on 05/10/2014 9:42:31 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

road are not rail.

roads unite.

rails control.


234 posted on 05/10/2014 9:52:03 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: longtermmemmory

No. That’s what the federal government wants you to believe, in fact. That’s why they control the roads, as well as the airports, and tax the populace to feed that unending black hole, when instead both could be privately owned and paid for per use. That’s why states exert control in the same manner, via vehicle registration and driver licensing. Didn’t notice that increasing government control took a giant leap with federal control of roads?

This country would not have been built as fast as it was without those steel rails—both owned and operated by private companies, which are but a few today thanks to (who?) the feral government (even during the Reagan years, there were about thirty or so Class 1 rail companies; we’re down to five, thanks to instituting crony capitalism). We would not have won WWII without them either. But the feral government then got into the transportation business, and legislated and regulated their “competition” out of business.


235 posted on 05/10/2014 10:01:02 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

we don’t live in huts and a forest either.

last I checked, I use roads on my schedule.

the government does not bring trains to me on my schedule.


236 posted on 05/10/2014 10:04:36 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Olog-hai

“The government has limited those choices for us.”

The “government” has limited the choices? Explain please.


237 posted on 05/10/2014 10:22:54 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: Wuli

I think I have already. Take a look at the Federal Railroad Administration’s website for all the regulations put on railroads, if you don’t believe me. Never mind the continued support by the federal government of highways and airports, when both should have been in private hands from their beginnings.


238 posted on 05/10/2014 10:32:51 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: longtermmemmory

No, but they “bring” you roads at the expense of others, instead of letting the private sector build and maintain them. Why countenance socialism of any form?

BTW, it was the expansion of railroads that led to the abandonment of the alleged “huts in the forest” for superior domiciles. (And FWICS, even prior to railroads, the average US domicile was far superior to a hut.)


239 posted on 05/10/2014 10:35:32 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Cronos

Older countries put in trains, and built around them, long before cars arrived. Where you are and where you want to go are located where they are due to rail proximity.

The USA had cars for a far longer percentage of its existence, developing around roads instead of rail.


240 posted on 05/10/2014 10:37:12 AM PDT by ctdonath2 ("If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun" - Obama, setting RoE with his opposition)
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