As I have pointed out in other threads, Western Europe and Japan have the train systems they do today because we blew their previous stuff to smithereens in WW2 then paid to rebuild them so they wouldn’t remain 3d world sh!tholes for any longer than necessary. Part of that rebuild was separating the train right-of-way from any interaction with a highway right-of-way. Thus, they have true high-speed rail that cannot interact with a random event like a vehicle driver crossing the rail line. Also, the dedicated passenger high-speed-rail line has no interaction with freight movements.
“Western Europe and Japan have the train systems they do today because we blew their previous stuff to smithereens in WW2 then paid to rebuild them so they wouldn’t remain 3d world sh!tholes for any longer than necessary.”
You wouldn’t believe the Americans who don’t know that. Anything that happened before they were born is ancient history and irrelevant to life today.
An unfortunate result of real history not being taught.
“Part of that rebuild was separating the train right-of-way from any interaction with a highway right-of-way. Thus, they have true high-speed rail that cannot interact with a random event like a vehicle driver crossing the rail line. Also, the dedicated passenger high-speed-rail line has no interaction with freight movements.”
In the U.S. freight traffic ALWAYS has priority over passenger traffic for the simple reason that freight is more profitable.
If passenger rail didn’t play second fiddle to freight more passengers might use rail. But under the current system there is no incentive to increase passenger service to the point where it would be profitable. Catch 22.
The country’s debt situation is so bad I don’t know if we could afford to build a separate passenger rail system from scratch. :(