Posted on 06/14/2015 1:36:36 PM PDT by QT3.14
The May Amtrak derailment outside of Philadelphia put the sorry state of passenger rail in the United States briefly back on the public agenda, leaving many people wondering not just about the specifics of the crash but about the more general issue — how is it that a rich and powerful country that was a pioneer in railroad adoption in the 19th century has such terrible trains?
The United States is a big country, with lots of trains in it. So you can really think of this big generic question as composed of three separate questions with separate answers. One question, of urgent interest to media and political elites in New York and Washington, is why Northeast Corridor passenger rail service is so much slower than the first-rate systems found in France, Spain, China, and Japan. The second question, which will have bedeviled anyone who's ever been a tourist in Europe, is why passenger rail outside of the Northeast Corridor is so unimaginably awful. Last but by no means least, there's the question of why the richest and most powerful empire the world has ever known can't build itself a first-rate national, truly high-speed rail network along Chinese lines.
These questions are often lumped together under the hazy notion that American trains are bad.
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
Libs gave us cartoons with cute talking animals. Libs give us television with low morals, and body parts. Libs give us things to focus upon other than reality. Libs give us anything they want they can make a buck off of honestly, or not?
What in the ‘H’ do we need Lib’s trains for? We need trains for freight. IF we look at people as Libs do, then people are freight.
I’ll take the car, and leave a seat on the train for the Lib.
So we’ll tear up the railroad track and we’ll all be saved!
Because passengers wouldn’t like to sit in switching yards for several hours or ride behind a mile of coal cars.
I would much prefer travelling by efficiently run passenger train than playing bumper cars with semis on interstates.
I was talking of the container business. Another grave error of Nixon, more so than creating Amtrak versus deregulating the railroads.
Ike wanted to put emphasis on developing the Interstate Highway system for easing transport of troops in case of invasion, and evacuation in case of impending nuclear war.
I e made that run a few times. The scenery is spectacular and the service first rate. The food is also quite good.
L
I was initially incredulous. How could any sane person want to spend 100 B on a train that nobody will ever take (more than once)?
But they explained. To them, it's all about building (caution, bad bad word coming) "infrastructure".
And, (again, according to my leftist acquaintances) even though it's unlikely that many folks want to go to where the train depots might be, that problem is solved, simply, with more "infrastructure" (more trains).
Oh, and this solves all of our problems, including environmental and economic. On the latter, they spoke quite highly of the Keynesian model (even telling me that Greece needs a more Keynesian model.)
I kept repeating, "nobody wants to ride the bullet train. Nobody will take the bullet train".
And, their response? Infrastructure!
Sadly, these (allegedly educated) people vote.
.
...ding, ding, ding,
Progressive liberal government.
Really? Darn.
I wanted to take the ride last month. Kind of a 2-day getaway for my family.
Unfortunately, my water heater puked.
And because of government regulations, they don’t make that (Gas-powered crawlspace) model any more.
AND because my house is old (1953), they had to re-wire the house to accommodate the new electric water heater.
End price?
$10,000
North Korea has lots of infrastructure.
Rail companies deliberately got out of the passenger business because the money was in freight after WW2. They made trains as bad as possible to get rid of passengers and succeeded. Now the government is trying to do it and that should answer all questions about why service is so bad.
Mrs. RQSR reminds us of the difference of European, and Japanese travel, and our own.
Their countries are much smaller, and the costs to build high speed rail much less due less mileage to cover.
I don’t think the Libs even think about that. They are too much focused on their environmental perspective.
The fare for thst last one is about the same, or lower in second class, as an air ticket. Takes longer but there's no two hour wait to get through check-in, security feel up, mile long corridor walk to your boarding gate, cram into a 16" space for your a$$ with two hundred strangers, a half hour to hour waiting for takeoff, another hour in the air, and then the whole procedure in reverse, plus a thirty or forty dollar taxi fare from the airport to town center. On arrival you might just run into your friends outside the hauptbahnhof who decided to take the train.
But to build something like that in America would probably take thirty years and a trillion dollars we don't have. And with the interstate road system (modeled off the Autobahn and built when we did have the wealth to invest, i.e. before the "Great Society" boondoggle began) we do have at least one alternative to flying sardine cans.
Whenever I'm in Europe, I travel by train.
Here in the states, though...not so much (well, never).
The United States is/was all about Liberty, Personal Freedom and Mobility. It has been that way since its inception. That is why the US led the world automotive development for 70 years.
When we lose the spirit of adventure, we will begin dying as a country.
Wife and I and another couple took the train from Osceola, Iowa to ski at Glenwood Springs, Colorado about 15 years ago. Service was good. We brought our own beverages in sleeper compartments. Fun.
Ouch. Sorry to hear that.
Mrs L and I rode the Zephyr several times. The Denver to Salt Lake leg is very scenic. I recommend it if you get the opportunity.
Well, after working all of the overtime I have to in order to pay this bill, I might be able to try again in October.
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