[SamAdams76]

This was an interesting article.

I think the main reason passenger trains never caught on in America is due to the vast distances involved.

In Europe, the distances between major cities is much shorter, making their trains basically "commuter trains", which is a model that works very well in America. Even going from Berlin to Paris (one of the longer trips) can be completed in a day by train as it's only about 550 miles.

Travelling any further than that on a train can become very uncomfortable as anybody who has ever tried an overnight journey on a train can attest. I tried a sleeper car on Amtrak once going cross country and I am not a fan.

However, I love my commuter trains which get me to Manhattan and back from my Connecticut home (70 miles away) in reasonable time.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Actually trains are much more comfortable than planes ever are.

You can move around and sit where you want. Makes even long trips much more comfortable. I definitely don’t relish 6 hour flight cross-country.

In fact, my dad ended up HAVING to take trains to visit his siblings in NE. Blood clotting danger. Flights, no good.

[COBOL2Java]

My grandson and I took the Amtrak sleeper from Washington DC to Chicago - and then the local down to Peoria last summer. It was nice, and the crew were very pleasant. However, if we do it again this year I’m upgrading to the larger sleeper.

In contrast, I took the Amtrak coach back home one winter when my daughter was stationed at Fort Riley Kansas. The train left from Kansas City’s Union Station, and went to Chicago. I arrived in Chicago on Super Bowl XLI, the Bears / Colts game. Spent the layover in a Union Station bar watching the game. As we were boarding the Amtrak for the trip to DC, I told the lady taking the tickets “Sorry about the Bears”. She smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

The trip from Chicago to DC was nice. At the time they had an observation car.

[chajin]

I think the main reason passenger trains never caught on in America is due to the vast distances involved.

The heyday of American passenger rail travel would be the era between the wagon train and the jet&interstates, around 1870-1960. There was much less travel in general among the working and farmer classes, but the middle-class and above took trains to anywhere too far for a carriage, and continued to do so until jet planes shortened the time for cross country travel, and interstates made car travel take about the same time as train travel.

[Political Junkie Too]

I've ridden Metro North a few times. It's a nice way to get from Westchester County to Manhattan and back.

-PJ

[GingisK]

Passenger trains did indeed catch on during their early years. They were the only option other than stagecoach. I clearly remember picking my family going to the train station to pick up and drop off my grandmother.

The airplane killed passenger service in this Nation.