this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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America currently has all of that... except for passenger rail.
We do have passenger rail, just not nearly enough. We even have luxury/private passenger rail.
I just checked Amtrak. I can hop on a one way train from Houston to Portland. The journey takes 4 days (not counting delays) and costs $1,700.
It's cheaper to fly and faster to drive. Are we really to believe that companies like Ford, GM, BNSF, CSX, Union Pacific, Boeing, American Airlines, and Delta have nothing to do with this and that it's genuinely the free market at work? Ofc not. Amtrak is a government agency. The government can and should use eminent domain to seize ownership of the entire rail network and fairly compensate the current owners for their stakes. In short, nationalize the rails.
The United States has more usable rail miles than all of Europe combined. But it's limited to freight traffic only. Amtrak has to lease time on the rails, which is why it's pricey
Also, "usable" does not mean "useful". Most rail in the US is incredibly out of maintenance, and deeply limited on top speed as a result. Many trains aren't going above 60MPH at any point in their journey not because of length or power, but because the rails (or the cars, or the engine) simply won't allow anyone to go faster SAFELY.
No doubt, it is just funny to be that passenger rail is so out of fashion in the US that most of the population things the rails simply don't exist, when they clearly do, in droves even. They are just privately owned and rarely shared.
In wish the uk renationalised the rails. Privatisation of public transport was one of the worst decisions. Thanks Thatcher.
Its more of a luxury than a convenience anywhere outside of the NE corridor. Utterly infuriating.