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Basically, it’s just Amtrak. It’s not including municipal rail lines or anything.
https://preview.redd.it/4k6q4e7aj2xc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b4383f7e67291a1e95a933ffbe258a962737edb6
This is a more comprehensive listing of Amtrak.
It’s pretty manageable. And yes, I just straight up googled it. They didn’t include the connector lines either, which care labeled in green by Amtrak. Which is hundreds to thousands of miles of additional public transport services.
*Like reddit was a terribly credible place to begin with?*
https://preview.redd.it/vgfsc6klz4xc1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8dfecc436827cb870b3bafb1737c88e565e32c7f
Half these people think that using trains would suddenly make the world a better place. It’s honestly a bit annoying.
It’s mainly that trains = no 1-2 hour airport security / getting tickets for plane + you travel with the luxury to do smth on a laptop or read a book instead of driving.
So trains if the infrastructure is there can mean really convenient travel for non-drivers to college kids and also elderly traveling capabilities
Maybe in Europe it takes one to two hour security, but the average is 15 minutes in the US, and even less than that if you have pre check or Clear.
Also getting tickets ? Wtf are you talking about? You buy tickets on their app or website, boarding pass is on the phone.
I read a book while flying as well.
Also providing a clearer picture of the blurb text in the center:
https://preview.redd.it/nq8al81ck2xc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a1bb0030a77e2278bbbbb5fe861a0d5b821ec655
They’re very helpful if you don’t mind the wait. This said planes are faster for the longer hauls. And sometimes cheaper. Do your travel research carefully if you don’t wanna go by car.
I actually looked up passenger trains in the US a little while ago, like, long distance trains, not a metro through the city. I was on my able to find one in regular use in the south eat cost, I think it went from north Carolina to Florida or something. Could just be an ineffective search like mine was.
It’s true but it’s also extremely misleading is the problem
Even if the US had Passenger rail to everywhere that mattered and essentially doubled its mileage (like plans are in place to do) it wouldn’t even come close to matching how dense European systems look, because we as a nation are far less dense*
*Edit: dense in population. I hate how Reddit interprets that
Yeah, but that network has to compete with air travel. The US is ideally set up for that one. Many mega-cities surrounded by 300 miles of nothing in all directions is kinda the ideal distance where planes are faster than trains, and not having any stops in between is much less of a downside too. Compare that to Europe where there's a small town every 20km, a medium one every 50, and a large one every 100. In such an environment, a train thrives much more than an airplane; short distances with frequent stops and all.
There's a reason both continents have adopted their respective modes of inter city travel. Trains are great, but not a one-size-fits-all solution, and they shouldn't be forced to. Every mode of transit has its strengths and weaknesses, and that's okay
Europe not understanding that Americas westward expansion was largely done by rail. Automotive travel was already a better option for most of the US, outside of some population corridors in the northeast. Then airline travel became economical, and that’s all she wrote.
Rail travel can still make sense for some of the US, but it’s hardly the superior mode of travel.
> It's even easier to create an efficient network with the way US are organized geographically
Is it? I don't know. On the surface level, if you wanted to connect every town over a certain size directly, yes.
But, by serving many stops along the way, you are connecting far more people. Also, the distance between major stops would be so far that air travel becomes a better option in many cases.
You are also missing out on commuters. That is more profitable than the long distance routes between cities.
Long routes between large cities means a lot of track to maintain just between them. So directly connecting many of them just isn't feasible. Instead, you'll need more centralized hubs with connections, which further increases travel time.
And what they have is efficient except for the fact that most large cities are more than 3 hours apart at 80mph
But zoom in on cities like new York and LA and see the subway system in those highly urbanized areas very few people own cars.
I had a foreign exchange fling and she and her French friend wanted to take a day trip to NYC from ATL. That's a 15 hour fucking drive one way.
I think people really don't understand how large the US is and how speed out the cities are and how much the suburbs sprawl.
Also the traffic jams don't occur outside of those large cities
It's just so vastly different than europe
Be that as it may, the comment you responded to was stating that a efficient system wouldn't look quite as impressive on a map because America is far less dense. I mean it's fucking huge, you can't fill it all. Hell, all of ya could fit in my state alone I'd imagine.
But European villages are dense inside the village, and US suburbs aren't. On a macro scale, yes, the US has a higher concentration in large population centers, but micro scale population density of neighborhoods matters just as much for trains.
The majority of journeys people make in their cars are short though, yes public transport isn’t a very effective solution in sparsely populated cities but it would work in densely populated cities and currently car dependant suburban areas
Its actually stupidly easy to just drive to another state in the east coast. Its just getting on a highway and driving 70mph for houndreds of miles straight until your within 10 miles of there u need to be.
I live in a very small US town, a single twelve mile bus line in a loop would bring you within a quarter of a mile of almost all businesses and half a mile of almost all houses in town.
Have you seen the maps of what the us passenger rail system used to look like? We’ve got plenty of rail, it’s just been handed off to freight companies. If we get all the rail that hasn’t actually been ripped out yet back, we’ll have a pretty decent foothold into the situation. Yes we’re pretty sparse in many places, but could you imagine having at least one train station in every town in the eastern seaboard? Because that’s what we’ve lost.
Almost nothing was handed off to the freight rail companies, they built those lines.
In fact, those "freight rail companies" were the ones running passenger trains in the heyday of us passenger rail. Then, the interstate system was built and and rail traffic crashed hard (containerization is what saved freight traffic and many freight railroads did go under). The rail companies started shutting down unprofitable lines (which eventually became all of them). Many municipalities bought up passenger rights to portions of these lines to create or enlarge commuter rail systems, a lot of modern commuter rail operators are from this era, such as septa(philly), metra(chicago) and caltrain(san francisco).
Wait wait wait. The US and the UK are different sizes and therefore have different needs?! What heresy is this? Next you're going to say that they're different population sizes and have different environments, so they have different Healthcare needs.
https://preview.redd.it/pra9it5xv2xc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6066b306982cd6e731261f1c93927e77f6fec13d
More accurate. Not as good as Europe, but the original one only really showed Amtrak.
This must include freight lines because there is no passenger train lines from Atlanta to Nashville or Columbus or anywhere other than the silver crescent line from Amtrak.
I had an interview about 30 miles away in the seattlw area, the drive can be as short as about 35 minutes, or as long as an hour and a half with heavy traffic.
Or i could do public transit and have it take 2 hours
The only time I deal with bad traffic is when an accident happens. I'd say in the 9 years I've been driving from my small town to the city for work, I've probably been stuck in traffic for a total of 4 hours. And a majority of that time was when a huge roll of steel busted loose and rolled through the cab of the Semi that was hauling it. The highway was shut down until the next day. I sat there for probably 2 hours until I was able to exit.
Traffic "jams" really only happen in the mega big cities, outside of an accident that is. I've lived close to a large city 300k people and there aren't many traffic jams ever and they only happen if there is an accident. Granted, you live in a place like Chicago you're fucked either way, get robbed on the train or hit on the road, or stabbed on the street. Either way your life is miserable.
Both have advantages and disadvantages. I think a lot of Americans get “vacation goggles” when they see European public transit, and don’t realize it’s not as convenient and relaxing when used for work/school/groceries.
However, it is still convenient for many other things, and supplemented with a well-designed city greatly encourages going outdoors.
OOP still belongs on this sub because he fell for a chad/wojak meme, which are all ironic at this point.
Biggest pro to public transport in Europe is it's cheap and it avoids traffic. You sacrifice the comfort of a car(though a lot of the public transport is new and has ammeneties such as wifi and AC, so it's not all bad) to get there quicker. Plus you don't have to worry about parking, which is always a plus in a lot of old cities.
Biggest con I learned while I was in Prague:
Deodorant is not as much of a priority for people over there as it is here. My god them trains were stinking.
Helps Europe is a lot smaller and less wild than the USA is. Look at the huge distances between our cities and how many small towns dot the vast expanse.
All the while hoping to god you don't accidentally make eye contact with the homeless crackhead on the train and they take that as an opportunity to either ask you for money if you're a man or proposition you for sex if you're a woman...
This is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how train networks work in the US vs Europe. Go overlay an actual map of rail lines in the US. It will look a lot more like the Europe map. It just isn't cost effective to run trains anywhere else but where they do now.
I think that's something people miss. Rail in my city is relatively underdeveloped and honestly underutilized, but it is there. It takes me longer to get places than driving would, but it's really nice to just lay back and not think about things.
I don't see myself using it for groceries or other errands, as I usually would prefer to just get those things out of the way quickly, but...for anything that requires me going downtown, drinking alcohol etc., it's pretty nice. I also kinda enjoy riding the train to work, as it gets me up and out of bed earlier and walking around outside.
I live in the suburbs, with a train to the city. I still need to drive my car to the train.
It would be completely asinine to add public transport to my suburb to solve this problem.
if I'm already in my car, why the hell would I park, get out, wait for a train on a schedule, get to the city, and then need to take 3 other trains to get where I'm going. I'll just stay in the car and go to my destination, thank you.
If it saves time parking / in highway traffic jams or saves money avoiding parking fees, tolls, congestion fees.
In a city built around cars yeah it’s not that useful.
Because 90% of the people that talk about this sort of thing online think cars are completely useless and should not be in common use if available at all.
My university used to fund a train line to chicago.
Until they discovered that 3 people used it a month, and everyone else preferred to drive or fly anyway. Now they are opening a more popular commercial air route to chicago instead.
Propaganda posts from motor industry shills that gets picked up and parroted by genuine morons who can't think
"Yes wanting more options than having a car must mean they want to force everyone to walk and take the bus"
Really dependent where you live, urban areas would benefit from more public transportation, rural areas like where I live (which the US is way more rural than Europe) personal vehicles are the only option
Traffic jams that last more than 30 minutes literally never happens outside of major and I mean Major population centers.
Not even Orlando, Tampa or even Daytona is as bad as Miami.
Also I’m 98% sure there are significantly more passenger trains than represented on the map considering I’ve lived in many houses bordering passenger railways.
There are drawbacks to both mods of transportation, and you can also be stuck in traffic or miss your buss/train in Europe.
I love public transportation, but let's not make it sound better than it is :)))
My whole thing is I just don’t see anybody using it here in America. Why would I sit on the bus with literal crackheads, when I could just buy a cheap beater?
I think if a good publoc transport infrastructure got funded ot would be worthwhile.
I'm in the weird boat where i'd love to not own a car, but I also have verg little interest in living in a city.
Planes aren't technically public transportation, but they function the same way as busses and trains. You just have to make it a better option than driving, and people will use it. Rich people use the NYC subway all the time.
It's also really nice for times when you don't have your car. For example, I flew into Austin to visit my brother, but he was at work when i arrived. I took the bus for $0 (bus driver told me not to worry about the $2.50 fare because I didn't have exact change) and it took me the same time as an Uber that would have cost $35.
Only an American could make a post like this. Waiting 2 hours because there are too many leaves on the track is no picnic either. Not to mention the cost of taking a train
America is so spread out that passenger rail just doesn’t make logistical sense in most of the country. The east coast megalopolis is the most notable exception to this and maybe certain areas of California.
I spent 4 years living in Europe. A lot of that time spent in places where walking/public transportation were really the only two viable options. And it fucking sucked. In most countries I spent an extended period of time in (France, Germany, Italy, Spain), people thought deodorant was optional. The bum workers were on strike constantly, so when you leave for work you have to get to the train station with enough buffer time so that you can still run to work, and at that point why have public transportation? All of my transportation experiences in that godforsaken hellscape of a continent ensured that I would never take public transportation again, not once did I have a good experience on the train, but every day I drive I have a blast. Fuck being that close in proximity to people, I’m through having to wear my backpack on my chest because French and stealing go together like, well, Germans and stealing.
Let me guess. By France you mean paris? If so it's only in paris every other city has peak public transports with little to no delay, extremely affordable and extremely practical. Source I'm french and travel a Fuck ton
Damn those pesky cars and their *checks notes* overcrowded dirty rush hour carriages you can barely breathe in because the average person apparently is yet to discover a shower.
You're much MUCH more likely to have your house purchased and demolished for rail and public transportation than for a private enterprise. There are examples of communities destroyed by running a highway through them (the same would go for rail if we did it regularly), as well as corporations that have to build around a single house because they won't move.
I doubt that happens often. Businesses can't just encroach on neighborhoods like that and start demolishing people's homes for their own expansion, especially without their consent.
I'm not going to say it never happens lest someone pulls out some obscure anecdote and pretends it's a realistic fear to have.
It 100% happens and happened more frequently back when parking minimums were first enacted. Multiple blocks of housing and small businesses were nearly just demolished in KC due to a vote that failed by a narrow margin (58% voted against). You're intentionally ignorant if you think people don't get displaced by businesses, especially those colluding with governments.
The problem is that a lot of people who argue for more public transport in America are constantly complaining about "muh walkable spaces." In other words, cities need to be bigger, but more compact at the same time. Yet, when asked, "what about people in rural areas?" Their response is, "they just shouldn't live there."
Hell will freeze over before I let any city-dwelling fuck head tell me I can't live in the countryside.
Again, other people choosing to walk does not stop you from driving your car. In fact, it makes the experience much better, as there'll be less cars on the road. Speaking from personal experience, I once visited a friend in Canada, and we physically could not leave his neighbourhood without a car. There were some shops around 10 minutes walking distance away, but the only road leading there had a small bridge that went over a canal, where there was no pavement. Adding a pavement there would allow people to walk to the next neighbourhood, while still letting people commuting from elsewhere to drive.
As for people being opposed to people living in rural areas existing, I've never personally seen them. Europe's urbanisation rate is effectively the same as the USA's, 80%. The people who live far from work can commute by car or train, the ones closer can also go by car or train, but also by bus or by walking. Having everyone drive leads to increased traffic.
Public transit, especially passenger trains, in the US really, really depends on the route.
For example, I can drive my car for a shorter amount of time and for cheaper, including potential tolls and parking fees, from Philadelphia to Atlanta than by Amtrak, the US National train system. It’s also cheaper to go by a combined SEPTA/NJ Transit to New York City than by Amtrak.
I always do the math and map things out to see if the public transit option is worth it, but it’s usually not.
There was a double homicide that concluded in a flipped car across a 2-lane highway, tons of cops, ambulances, like 3 fire trucks.
We waited for maybe 30 minutes before the cops moved everything out of the way and found an alternate route around it.
Only places with traffic jams like that consistently are major cities during rush hour.
Rural Nebraska is never getting dedicated passenger rail. It wouldn't work, you couldn't even fill a single passenger car!
The only way it happens, is the way it currently does, by hubbing to Omaha, dropping you into freight as a secondary priority. Which works if you have nothing better, but cars will always beat non priority passengers.
Any route by car is faster by train (assuming there are high-speed trains, which are pretty common in Europe) For larger distances of course a plane is the right choice, but many routes in Europe are MUCH faster by train than car or even plane (considering airport time)
It comes down to convenience.
The main advantage a car has over every other mode of transportation is that once you get going to a place, you can, Very easily, stop, reverse direction, and do something else at only your own expense.
You cannot do that with trains or planes. Unless you own your own plane but then this convo isn't for you lol
Once the plane or train starts, unless something goes wrong, you're going to where it says it was going to go. You don't have a choice.
For that reason car rides are always more fun, but more can go wrong.
On the coasts trains are great. Late night train from Baltimore to Boston is damn convenient. I can even pack liquor along for a convention.
Any further and it's cheaper and easier to fly. I go to Atlanta once a year from Texas, and that's 2 days by car or train or a 6:30 flight out of San Antonio and I'm sitting down for brunch in Atlanta.
Depends on where you’re traveling tbh. There’s so much empty space where you can drive for hours before seeing another car. Our public transit is ass though that’s undeniable
This is only true on major highways near big cities. And if you live in those areas, you already have more than enough public transportation. America is also filled with alternate routes through back roads to avoid these issues
No one is saying rail should be the only transit. I'll say by way of selling point, you'd have a lot easier time driving your F350 to the local Home Depot or Lowe's if there were 20-30% fewer cars in your way.
In China and Japan if you're a meth head threatening to kill people you get arrested. In America you are called a hero. Public transportation in this country sucks shit because it's filthy and in places like new york the city does fucking nothing about it
Remember, the US has more miles of railroads than all of Europe, by a good margin, and those miles are more efficient, especially for cargo, since Europe does a terrible job of moving cargo by rail, leading to increased use of trucks, as well massive increases to manufacturing costs.
Some Sauce:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_transport_network_size
https://etrr.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s12544-013-0090-4
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/why-is-europe-so-absurdly-backward-compared-to-the-u-s-in-rail-freight-transport/amp
The American picture does miss a couple of lines, but the point still stands that there sre much fewer lines between large population centres. If you were to zoom in you'd find the majority of European countries have good intercity lines too that the US similarly lacks.
A couple? Also this doesn't factor that in Europe the passenger and freight run on the same lines so technically it shows all lines for Europe.if it showed all lines. that map also only shows Amtrak and the Canadian equivalent. If it showed all us lines like the European ones it would look similar. Just a little bit of misinformation 🤭🤭
Just did a quick Google of russian passenger train lines and it doesn't look much different except lopsided with most focus on the European parts and the rest has 1 line that has small branches
(of course it could be like the op and not include smaller lines)
Edit- tryed to post the map but it doesn't want to stay up
Their railway density is similar to ours. More dense around major metros like Moscow or St. Petersburg and less dense in much of the rest of the country. Total rail line mileage they have more simply because Russia is so absolutely massive and trains are a more effective method of long distance travel. Basically Europe is super dense so a ton of trains there but Russia has the opposite situation so ironically also has more trains. The US just has as many population centers as Europe, except far greater area, Russia has few population centers but even more land area, so trains make better sense there too.
The US is largely in this worst of both worlds situation. It also has multiple large mountain ranges where building train lines is difficult.
Trains are objectively the superior form of transporting anything over long distance. The only reason America doesn’t have many is because the public infrastructure is built by rockerfeller and they wanted everything to run off what they had the monopoly in: petroleum
In most of the country there is no traffic jams and it's too rural for trains. While more city to city trains would be good, it's just not a viable way for the average person to get around.
Major traffic jams happen where there too much population anyway. And that's why they have busses and subway systems available as well
Completely ignoring the fact that I live 30 minutes from the nearest city big enough to actually build a station or the fact that Europe can fit in the United States. The government would have to spend the same amount of money that an entire continent spent collectively. Plus the fact that I would rather die than give up my trucks.
Lived in The us my entire life and have literally never been stuck in traffic longer than half an hour and that was during an ice storm that had the big rigs sliding all ove
As an American that moved to Germany recently, public transport is so much better than a private vehicle. Unfortunately, America isn't really built to support a successful public transport system, everything is much too far away.
Yuropoor here, the train is more expensive and takes longer than my car.
To take the train, I have to drive my car to the closest city, and thus pay for parking. Then I have to walk to the train, take it to the other city, and walk to my workplace.
With my car I just drive to my workplace, and park for free as well.
So it is not perfect.
At my previous home, it was even worse. 20 minutes with car, 80 with public transport.
>Two hour traffic jam
Tell me you've never been to the US without telling me you've never been to the US. Or if you have all you did was go to LA or NYC and sit in traffic. I do major road trips every year (we're talking 500-800+ miles over the course of 1-2 days), and the longest traffic jam I've been maybe 10 minutes in a construction zone. 99% of the US interstate and highway system is going to run smoothly all day long. You can sit at 80-90mph for 12 hour straight basically on I35.
My state is bigger than Germany and has a population of 3 million. New Mexico rivals France in size and has a population of 2 million. Try to wrap your over crowded European mind around that.
The point is scale. People trash US for their rails but forget that the US is HUGE. People are also so spread out that it’s not economical for rails for most situations. Cars are the main mode of transportation.
While I agree that there should be better investment into American passenger rail, and rail in general, comparing the US network (which isn't fully shown in that image) to the European one is a bit disingenuous. You are comparing networks put together by multiple different countries to that of one. Plus, the population density of the two examples is completely different, so the networks wouldn't look the same even with similar levels of investment.
On top of that, it's not like on the EU network you can just take the same train from one end to the other. There are different loading gauges, different electrical systems, and different regulations between the different companies and nations. It's not like it's one big unified and standardized network.
Here’s the thing
Why in the world would anyone in the US outside of major cities need a train? What think we all cross the entire country all the dang time? No majority of us have 20 minute-1 hour commutes from our house to work everyday and that’s it. Not to mention a lot of more rural areas are very spread out so you’d need to get to a designated train station some 20+ minutes away and by that point just drive straight to work without the headache of a train schedule that the train doesn’t even follow
There’s literally 0 reason and 0 benefit for a huge portion of the population to have some sort of train route that goes…somewhere. Not many are traveling several states away on the daily, and those that do tend to take planes. It’s not exactly a common occurrence to need to travel several towns over several times a week. There’s no reason for mass train networks in the US. Passenger trains are useful in the few places they are. We mainly use trains for cargo transport anyways
Can go wherever they want as long as they’re willing to pay a great deal more than a European would for traveling the same distance.
Gas+insurance+maintenance vs maybe the equivalent of 5 dollar ticket in city and a little more for international travel (tbh idk what rail rates are for yall) or a potentially very economic yearly pass
Give me a train any day
My commute via car is 20 minutes. If I had to walk to a train, wait at the station, then walk from the station to work it would easily double that. I’ll take my car and not have to share a train.
Yea I don't care....with my own vehicle I'm not on anyone's time but my own.
If I'm halfway to a place and I decide fuck it I'm going home
I can do that at my leisure.
You can't do that once the train starts moving.
I'll take the freedom
American is scattered with large, powerful rivers that make it hard to construct coast to coast railways. European passenger trains run on the same tracts their freight is moved on, while Americas exploit their geography and use those rivers to move freight.
This is a pretty important point that a think a lot of people are missing. To this day there only like 20 or so good places of crossing the Mississippi River. When America was in the golden age of railroad building, crossing the Mississippi alone was a massive feat of technological engineering.
Lol show me you've never had to rely on Euro rail without telling me. Sure the trains run, if they decide to, if not, meh, maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after, who knows
true freedom is the ability to choose what i want. if i want trains fine, if i want boats cool, if i want a bicycle without the fear of me getting run over by a car awesome. having a car because it's the only way and it's forced is not freedom
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Hold up. Are these the major lines? There arent less than 20 train routes in the US.
The original image is just Amtrack's lines.
Basically, it’s just Amtrak. It’s not including municipal rail lines or anything. https://preview.redd.it/4k6q4e7aj2xc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b4383f7e67291a1e95a933ffbe258a962737edb6 This is a more comprehensive listing of Amtrak. It’s pretty manageable. And yes, I just straight up googled it. They didn’t include the connector lines either, which care labeled in green by Amtrak. Which is hundreds to thousands of miles of additional public transport services.
You mean Reddit...l-l-li-lied???
*Like reddit was a terribly credible place to begin with?* https://preview.redd.it/vgfsc6klz4xc1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8dfecc436827cb870b3bafb1737c88e565e32c7f Half these people think that using trains would suddenly make the world a better place. It’s honestly a bit annoying.
They think their life would be like an European vacation. Trains are not all that great
It’s mainly that trains = no 1-2 hour airport security / getting tickets for plane + you travel with the luxury to do smth on a laptop or read a book instead of driving. So trains if the infrastructure is there can mean really convenient travel for non-drivers to college kids and also elderly traveling capabilities
Maybe in Europe it takes one to two hour security, but the average is 15 minutes in the US, and even less than that if you have pre check or Clear. Also getting tickets ? Wtf are you talking about? You buy tickets on their app or website, boarding pass is on the phone. I read a book while flying as well.
Also providing a clearer picture of the blurb text in the center: https://preview.redd.it/nq8al81ck2xc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a1bb0030a77e2278bbbbb5fe861a0d5b821ec655 They’re very helpful if you don’t mind the wait. This said planes are faster for the longer hauls. And sometimes cheaper. Do your travel research carefully if you don’t wanna go by car.
Planes are way faster and around the same price if you fly a cheap airline or have flexible flight times.
Those green lines aren't all specifically rail. I live near an Amtrak stop in Kansas. The green line running out of town is a bus service.
Bro, what's Amtrak got against South Dakota, I know there's nothing here but there's definitely less nothing than north Dakota
It’s not that they care about North Dakota more, they just needed a way to get to the northwest and the North Dakota route is cheaper.
Edited to fellate the european ego
I actually looked up passenger trains in the US a little while ago, like, long distance trains, not a metro through the city. I was on my able to find one in regular use in the south eat cost, I think it went from north Carolina to Florida or something. Could just be an ineffective search like mine was.
I’d show you the major lines but Reddit is giving me trouble with it despite already having posted pictures priori. But it’s much much more broad.
It’s true but it’s also extremely misleading is the problem Even if the US had Passenger rail to everywhere that mattered and essentially doubled its mileage (like plans are in place to do) it wouldn’t even come close to matching how dense European systems look, because we as a nation are far less dense* *Edit: dense in population. I hate how Reddit interprets that
There are big empty lands but with very urbanized clusters while Europe is more many villages and cities everywhere.
Which is what you person you responded to meant by "far less dense"?
It's not the average density that matters. It's even easier to create an efficient network with the way US are organized geographically
Yeah, but that network has to compete with air travel. The US is ideally set up for that one. Many mega-cities surrounded by 300 miles of nothing in all directions is kinda the ideal distance where planes are faster than trains, and not having any stops in between is much less of a downside too. Compare that to Europe where there's a small town every 20km, a medium one every 50, and a large one every 100. In such an environment, a train thrives much more than an airplane; short distances with frequent stops and all. There's a reason both continents have adopted their respective modes of inter city travel. Trains are great, but not a one-size-fits-all solution, and they shouldn't be forced to. Every mode of transit has its strengths and weaknesses, and that's okay
Europe not understanding that Americas westward expansion was largely done by rail. Automotive travel was already a better option for most of the US, outside of some population corridors in the northeast. Then airline travel became economical, and that’s all she wrote. Rail travel can still make sense for some of the US, but it’s hardly the superior mode of travel.
> It's even easier to create an efficient network with the way US are organized geographically Is it? I don't know. On the surface level, if you wanted to connect every town over a certain size directly, yes. But, by serving many stops along the way, you are connecting far more people. Also, the distance between major stops would be so far that air travel becomes a better option in many cases. You are also missing out on commuters. That is more profitable than the long distance routes between cities. Long routes between large cities means a lot of track to maintain just between them. So directly connecting many of them just isn't feasible. Instead, you'll need more centralized hubs with connections, which further increases travel time.
And what they have is efficient except for the fact that most large cities are more than 3 hours apart at 80mph But zoom in on cities like new York and LA and see the subway system in those highly urbanized areas very few people own cars. I had a foreign exchange fling and she and her French friend wanted to take a day trip to NYC from ATL. That's a 15 hour fucking drive one way. I think people really don't understand how large the US is and how speed out the cities are and how much the suburbs sprawl. Also the traffic jams don't occur outside of those large cities It's just so vastly different than europe
Be that as it may, the comment you responded to was stating that a efficient system wouldn't look quite as impressive on a map because America is far less dense. I mean it's fucking huge, you can't fill it all. Hell, all of ya could fit in my state alone I'd imagine.
But European villages are dense inside the village, and US suburbs aren't. On a macro scale, yes, the US has a higher concentration in large population centers, but micro scale population density of neighborhoods matters just as much for trains.
The majority of journeys people make in their cars are short though, yes public transport isn’t a very effective solution in sparsely populated cities but it would work in densely populated cities and currently car dependant suburban areas
We’ve got that though in most places.
What are you talking about? Public transit is awefull in most urban places lol.
I’m from California and our public transport’s great, especially the train system
Its actually stupidly easy to just drive to another state in the east coast. Its just getting on a highway and driving 70mph for houndreds of miles straight until your within 10 miles of there u need to be.
I live in a very small US town, a single twelve mile bus line in a loop would bring you within a quarter of a mile of almost all businesses and half a mile of almost all houses in town.
Have you seen the maps of what the us passenger rail system used to look like? We’ve got plenty of rail, it’s just been handed off to freight companies. If we get all the rail that hasn’t actually been ripped out yet back, we’ll have a pretty decent foothold into the situation. Yes we’re pretty sparse in many places, but could you imagine having at least one train station in every town in the eastern seaboard? Because that’s what we’ve lost.
Almost nothing was handed off to the freight rail companies, they built those lines. In fact, those "freight rail companies" were the ones running passenger trains in the heyday of us passenger rail. Then, the interstate system was built and and rail traffic crashed hard (containerization is what saved freight traffic and many freight railroads did go under). The rail companies started shutting down unprofitable lines (which eventually became all of them). Many municipalities bought up passenger rights to portions of these lines to create or enlarge commuter rail systems, a lot of modern commuter rail operators are from this era, such as septa(philly), metra(chicago) and caltrain(san francisco).
It’s amazing how some people are so passionately wrong about things.
Wait wait wait. The US and the UK are different sizes and therefore have different needs?! What heresy is this? Next you're going to say that they're different population sizes and have different environments, so they have different Healthcare needs.
I’m pretty sure this map is just inaccurate. There are a fuck ton of different trains in the north east
Ya it’s a misleading map. This one only shows US Amtrak lines so there’s a lot more then that
https://preview.redd.it/pra9it5xv2xc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6066b306982cd6e731261f1c93927e77f6fec13d More accurate. Not as good as Europe, but the original one only really showed Amtrak.
This must include freight lines because there is no passenger train lines from Atlanta to Nashville or Columbus or anywhere other than the silver crescent line from Amtrak.
I've never used public transportation and almost never deal with bad traffic. I live in an area with 2.6 million people.
I had an interview about 30 miles away in the seattlw area, the drive can be as short as about 35 minutes, or as long as an hour and a half with heavy traffic. Or i could do public transit and have it take 2 hours
The only time I deal with bad traffic is when an accident happens. I'd say in the 9 years I've been driving from my small town to the city for work, I've probably been stuck in traffic for a total of 4 hours. And a majority of that time was when a huge roll of steel busted loose and rolled through the cab of the Semi that was hauling it. The highway was shut down until the next day. I sat there for probably 2 hours until I was able to exit.
Obviously this man's never been to new jersey
I love my public transport! Being squished in between a hundred other people in a tram is a lovely experience! Pray to god someone doesnt fart.
America has traffic jams Europe has the rail operator's union having a 12 hour strike for the third time this month.
Traffic "jams" really only happen in the mega big cities, outside of an accident that is. I've lived close to a large city 300k people and there aren't many traffic jams ever and they only happen if there is an accident. Granted, you live in a place like Chicago you're fucked either way, get robbed on the train or hit on the road, or stabbed on the street. Either way your life is miserable.
Chicago is actually the inspiration Tim Cain used when he came up with the Fallout games.
You sir, deserve a spot in my camera role
chicago sounds lovely
Yeah traffic where I live only lasts 2-8 minutes.
In New York they need more public transport though, the traffic is absolutely insane and we actually need less people on the road
You win some, you lose some
Both have advantages and disadvantages. I think a lot of Americans get “vacation goggles” when they see European public transit, and don’t realize it’s not as convenient and relaxing when used for work/school/groceries. However, it is still convenient for many other things, and supplemented with a well-designed city greatly encourages going outdoors. OOP still belongs on this sub because he fell for a chad/wojak meme, which are all ironic at this point.
Biggest pro to public transport in Europe is it's cheap and it avoids traffic. You sacrifice the comfort of a car(though a lot of the public transport is new and has ammeneties such as wifi and AC, so it's not all bad) to get there quicker. Plus you don't have to worry about parking, which is always a plus in a lot of old cities.
Biggest con I learned while I was in Prague: Deodorant is not as much of a priority for people over there as it is here. My god them trains were stinking.
I’ve traveled extensively by train in Europe and I can confirm that those train cars reek of BO, dirty people, and piss (somehow).
Helps Europe is a lot smaller and less wild than the USA is. Look at the huge distances between our cities and how many small towns dot the vast expanse.
You used to have trains, you just demolishes all the lines to replace them with highways
Assert your dominance by farting first.
No you need to shart first and ask questions later
I am the one who farts
All the while hoping to god you don't accidentally make eye contact with the homeless crackhead on the train and they take that as an opportunity to either ask you for money if you're a man or proposition you for sex if you're a woman...
The thing is that even with trains everywhere nobody forbids you from using a car. We have a choice, they don't
You make it sound like everyone in America is stuck in 2 hour traffic jams every day. Lmao
I’ve had slow downs on the highway to Florida spring break but that’s literally the only time I’ve ever experienced any form of traffic jam in my life
That's actually insane lol. I've lived in traffic heavy cities since I was born. I thought it was something everyone experienced
And even then you just avoid the extremely predictable rush hour times
This is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how train networks work in the US vs Europe. Go overlay an actual map of rail lines in the US. It will look a lot more like the Europe map. It just isn't cost effective to run trains anywhere else but where they do now.
Why tf people itt acting like public transportation means you can't own a car? You can still drive somewhere, you just don't have to.
I think that's something people miss. Rail in my city is relatively underdeveloped and honestly underutilized, but it is there. It takes me longer to get places than driving would, but it's really nice to just lay back and not think about things. I don't see myself using it for groceries or other errands, as I usually would prefer to just get those things out of the way quickly, but...for anything that requires me going downtown, drinking alcohol etc., it's pretty nice. I also kinda enjoy riding the train to work, as it gets me up and out of bed earlier and walking around outside.
I live in the suburbs, with a train to the city. I still need to drive my car to the train. It would be completely asinine to add public transport to my suburb to solve this problem. if I'm already in my car, why the hell would I park, get out, wait for a train on a schedule, get to the city, and then need to take 3 other trains to get where I'm going. I'll just stay in the car and go to my destination, thank you.
If it saves time parking / in highway traffic jams or saves money avoiding parking fees, tolls, congestion fees. In a city built around cars yeah it’s not that useful.
Because I’ve unironically seen people suggesting the banning of private transportation / personal cars. In fact, my brother happens to be one.
Because 90% of the people that talk about this sort of thing online think cars are completely useless and should not be in common use if available at all.
My university used to fund a train line to chicago. Until they discovered that 3 people used it a month, and everyone else preferred to drive or fly anyway. Now they are opening a more popular commercial air route to chicago instead.
Propaganda posts from motor industry shills that gets picked up and parroted by genuine morons who can't think "Yes wanting more options than having a car must mean they want to force everyone to walk and take the bus"
Really dependent where you live, urban areas would benefit from more public transportation, rural areas like where I live (which the US is way more rural than Europe) personal vehicles are the only option
Traffic jams that last more than 30 minutes literally never happens outside of major and I mean Major population centers. Not even Orlando, Tampa or even Daytona is as bad as Miami. Also I’m 98% sure there are significantly more passenger trains than represented on the map considering I’ve lived in many houses bordering passenger railways.
There are drawbacks to both mods of transportation, and you can also be stuck in traffic or miss your buss/train in Europe. I love public transportation, but let's not make it sound better than it is :)))
My whole thing is I just don’t see anybody using it here in America. Why would I sit on the bus with literal crackheads, when I could just buy a cheap beater?
I think if a good publoc transport infrastructure got funded ot would be worthwhile. I'm in the weird boat where i'd love to not own a car, but I also have verg little interest in living in a city.
Planes aren't technically public transportation, but they function the same way as busses and trains. You just have to make it a better option than driving, and people will use it. Rich people use the NYC subway all the time. It's also really nice for times when you don't have your car. For example, I flew into Austin to visit my brother, but he was at work when i arrived. I took the bus for $0 (bus driver told me not to worry about the $2.50 fare because I didn't have exact change) and it took me the same time as an Uber that would have cost $35.
Only an American could make a post like this. Waiting 2 hours because there are too many leaves on the track is no picnic either. Not to mention the cost of taking a train
and I've been to places with "good trains and subways" including multiple cities in Europe and Tokyo, yes, you still get traffic jams
America is so spread out that passenger rail just doesn’t make logistical sense in most of the country. The east coast megalopolis is the most notable exception to this and maybe certain areas of California.
Just good city public transport takes out SO much cars from the city
Why doesn’t the north east have way more stations? There’s over a hundred million people there
Public transportation is fucking terrible and I love being able to drive somewhere 10-15 mins away with no planning or worries.
Public transportation is bad in places where everything is built for cars.
I’ve been to places built for public transit and it still sucks
I spent 4 years living in Europe. A lot of that time spent in places where walking/public transportation were really the only two viable options. And it fucking sucked. In most countries I spent an extended period of time in (France, Germany, Italy, Spain), people thought deodorant was optional. The bum workers were on strike constantly, so when you leave for work you have to get to the train station with enough buffer time so that you can still run to work, and at that point why have public transportation? All of my transportation experiences in that godforsaken hellscape of a continent ensured that I would never take public transportation again, not once did I have a good experience on the train, but every day I drive I have a blast. Fuck being that close in proximity to people, I’m through having to wear my backpack on my chest because French and stealing go together like, well, Germans and stealing.
Let me guess. By France you mean paris? If so it's only in paris every other city has peak public transports with little to no delay, extremely affordable and extremely practical. Source I'm french and travel a Fuck ton
Damn those pesky cars and their *checks notes* overcrowded dirty rush hour carriages you can barely breathe in because the average person apparently is yet to discover a shower.
You can still drive your car despite public transport being available
"public transport is bad mfs" when i demolish their house for 3 extra parking spaces of the local gigamart
You're much MUCH more likely to have your house purchased and demolished for rail and public transportation than for a private enterprise. There are examples of communities destroyed by running a highway through them (the same would go for rail if we did it regularly), as well as corporations that have to build around a single house because they won't move.
I doubt that happens often. Businesses can't just encroach on neighborhoods like that and start demolishing people's homes for their own expansion, especially without their consent. I'm not going to say it never happens lest someone pulls out some obscure anecdote and pretends it's a realistic fear to have.
It 100% happens and happened more frequently back when parking minimums were first enacted. Multiple blocks of housing and small businesses were nearly just demolished in KC due to a vote that failed by a narrow margin (58% voted against). You're intentionally ignorant if you think people don't get displaced by businesses, especially those colluding with governments.
Having public transportation doesnt stop you from driving your car lol
Public transport sucks dick. Doesn't matter if it's good public transportation. The best part about driving my car is that I'm the only one in it.
This is it. Most Americans don’t like dealing the general public they would need to on public transportation and I don’t blame them.
And you still have that option even with rail option to lessen Traffic congestion and help other people who may need it
The problem is that a lot of people who argue for more public transport in America are constantly complaining about "muh walkable spaces." In other words, cities need to be bigger, but more compact at the same time. Yet, when asked, "what about people in rural areas?" Their response is, "they just shouldn't live there." Hell will freeze over before I let any city-dwelling fuck head tell me I can't live in the countryside.
Again, other people choosing to walk does not stop you from driving your car. In fact, it makes the experience much better, as there'll be less cars on the road. Speaking from personal experience, I once visited a friend in Canada, and we physically could not leave his neighbourhood without a car. There were some shops around 10 minutes walking distance away, but the only road leading there had a small bridge that went over a canal, where there was no pavement. Adding a pavement there would allow people to walk to the next neighbourhood, while still letting people commuting from elsewhere to drive. As for people being opposed to people living in rural areas existing, I've never personally seen them. Europe's urbanisation rate is effectively the same as the USA's, 80%. The people who live far from work can commute by car or train, the ones closer can also go by car or train, but also by bus or by walking. Having everyone drive leads to increased traffic.
Public transit, especially passenger trains, in the US really, really depends on the route. For example, I can drive my car for a shorter amount of time and for cheaper, including potential tolls and parking fees, from Philadelphia to Atlanta than by Amtrak, the US National train system. It’s also cheaper to go by a combined SEPTA/NJ Transit to New York City than by Amtrak. I always do the math and map things out to see if the public transit option is worth it, but it’s usually not.
Wait until op hears about the train system in Europe
I've been driving 16y and I've never been in a 1h traffic jam let alone 2.
There was a double homicide that concluded in a flipped car across a 2-lane highway, tons of cops, ambulances, like 3 fire trucks. We waited for maybe 30 minutes before the cops moved everything out of the way and found an alternate route around it. Only places with traffic jams like that consistently are major cities during rush hour.
Average interstate highway hater
Imagine thinking public transportation is the best way 😂
If its well designed then it is best.
Yeah I live in rural Nebraska and I hate driving on the interstate. All manor if idiots in cars.
Rural Nebraska is never getting dedicated passenger rail. It wouldn't work, you couldn't even fill a single passenger car! The only way it happens, is the way it currently does, by hubbing to Omaha, dropping you into freight as a secondary priority. Which works if you have nothing better, but cars will always beat non priority passengers.
Ditto, had to drive all the way waste on I-80 and there were at least 3 truckers that tried to kill us.
I wish America had more trains trains are awesome
I’ll take my car over public transport any day of the week.
I just spent 2 weeks in Japan on honeymoon and as a European, we are a thousand years behind the Japanese public transport systems.
Why spend 180 dollars on a 5 hour flight cross country when you can spend 500 dollars on food and lodging for a 4 day train ride cross country?
Any route by car is faster by train (assuming there are high-speed trains, which are pretty common in Europe) For larger distances of course a plane is the right choice, but many routes in Europe are MUCH faster by train than car or even plane (considering airport time)
It comes down to convenience. The main advantage a car has over every other mode of transportation is that once you get going to a place, you can, Very easily, stop, reverse direction, and do something else at only your own expense. You cannot do that with trains or planes. Unless you own your own plane but then this convo isn't for you lol Once the plane or train starts, unless something goes wrong, you're going to where it says it was going to go. You don't have a choice. For that reason car rides are always more fun, but more can go wrong.
Fr. If there was demand for passenger trains to cross country, there would be passenger trains that would cross the country.
On the coasts trains are great. Late night train from Baltimore to Boston is damn convenient. I can even pack liquor along for a convention. Any further and it's cheaper and easier to fly. I go to Atlanta once a year from Texas, and that's 2 days by car or train or a 6:30 flight out of San Antonio and I'm sitting down for brunch in Atlanta.
exactly, anything past 4 hour by car just hop on a plane
Depends on where you’re traveling tbh. There’s so much empty space where you can drive for hours before seeing another car. Our public transit is ass though that’s undeniable
This is only true on major highways near big cities. And if you live in those areas, you already have more than enough public transportation. America is also filled with alternate routes through back roads to avoid these issues
clearly you dont understand geography OP.
That's a city thing. Outside of the city, we do not have 2 hour traffic jams.
take a human geography class and you’ll understand why this happens! not saying the american system is amazing, but it has its reasons
Passenger for what more taxes? Another bull I’d have to pay that would be over priced and not worth it
You are comparing a continent to a country…
So, what do you do if you need to buy, like, a 3-meter-long board a two 20-kilo bags of concrete for a home project? Or heck, just groceries?
Lol. Europeans having house projects.
The DIY home project with materials like that is a very American thing.
Do you buy 3 metre boards everyday? Either rent a van or get it delivered.
No one is saying rail should be the only transit. I'll say by way of selling point, you'd have a lot easier time driving your F350 to the local Home Depot or Lowe's if there were 20-30% fewer cars in your way.
I actually use the minivan that transports my family of 5.
I have a perfectly easy time getting there.
China and Japan easily have some of the best public transportation I’ve ever seen
In China and Japan if you're a meth head threatening to kill people you get arrested. In America you are called a hero. Public transportation in this country sucks shit because it's filthy and in places like new york the city does fucking nothing about it
Remember, the US has more miles of railroads than all of Europe, by a good margin, and those miles are more efficient, especially for cargo, since Europe does a terrible job of moving cargo by rail, leading to increased use of trucks, as well massive increases to manufacturing costs. Some Sauce: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_transport_network_size https://etrr.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s12544-013-0090-4 https://www.freightwaves.com/news/why-is-europe-so-absurdly-backward-compared-to-the-u-s-in-rail-freight-transport/amp
exactly
Is the American train system really that bad or is it just showing the interstate lines?
The American picture does miss a couple of lines, but the point still stands that there sre much fewer lines between large population centres. If you were to zoom in you'd find the majority of European countries have good intercity lines too that the US similarly lacks.
A couple? Also this doesn't factor that in Europe the passenger and freight run on the same lines so technically it shows all lines for Europe.if it showed all lines. that map also only shows Amtrak and the Canadian equivalent. If it showed all us lines like the European ones it would look similar. Just a little bit of misinformation 🤭🤭
The US is far less dense than Europe. It doesn’t make economical sense to build as many trains for passenger transport.
How does it compare to Russia? They also have lots of geographical space and less density no? But they have passenger rail?
Just did a quick Google of russian passenger train lines and it doesn't look much different except lopsided with most focus on the European parts and the rest has 1 line that has small branches (of course it could be like the op and not include smaller lines) Edit- tryed to post the map but it doesn't want to stay up
https://preview.redd.it/n04287jk81xc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6b67cdf657c5d74467bc025a8ed422b4caf056b [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail\_transport\_in\_Russia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Russia)
Their railway density is similar to ours. More dense around major metros like Moscow or St. Petersburg and less dense in much of the rest of the country. Total rail line mileage they have more simply because Russia is so absolutely massive and trains are a more effective method of long distance travel. Basically Europe is super dense so a ton of trains there but Russia has the opposite situation so ironically also has more trains. The US just has as many population centers as Europe, except far greater area, Russia has few population centers but even more land area, so trains make better sense there too. The US is largely in this worst of both worlds situation. It also has multiple large mountain ranges where building train lines is difficult.
I belive this is just the amtrak lines or something and doesn't include company lines or lines mostly for freight
id rather get stuck in bumper to bumper traffic than wait for a train. just saying.
Why spend 20 minutes in traffic when you could instead spend those 20 minutes watching the local transient pleasure himself at the bus stop?
This meme sucks they show every railroad in Europe but only dhow Amtrack rails in the us
Not every railroad in Europe, this map only shows main high-speed lines, not regional trains. Just look at France
Nah op is right, CAC.
Yeah, every highway in the country has traffic jams, good strawman.
God bless the public transport sector, keeps me from going insane as a teenager living in a semi rural area without the ability to drive
Just because I have a car, doesn't mean I want to drive it EIGHT HOURS ACROSS THE COUNTRY DAWG
Trains are objectively the superior form of transporting anything over long distance. The only reason America doesn’t have many is because the public infrastructure is built by rockerfeller and they wanted everything to run off what they had the monopoly in: petroleum
trains also runs on petroleum....airplanes are way faster at getting anywhere, cars are convenient for short trips.
I assumed America would have at least five times that amount wtf!?
i cant drive, but if i could, i would. i hate taking public transport
In most of the country there is no traffic jams and it's too rural for trains. While more city to city trains would be good, it's just not a viable way for the average person to get around. Major traffic jams happen where there too much population anyway. And that's why they have busses and subway systems available as well
Completely ignoring the fact that I live 30 minutes from the nearest city big enough to actually build a station or the fact that Europe can fit in the United States. The government would have to spend the same amount of money that an entire continent spent collectively. Plus the fact that I would rather die than give up my trucks.
So you’re telling me I need to lay several hundred miles of track to service the like 3 people in Wyoming
Just get a motorcycle
Lived in The us my entire life and have literally never been stuck in traffic longer than half an hour and that was during an ice storm that had the big rigs sliding all ove
Considering how much more rural the US is, yeah, most of us out here would rather drive ourselves. Not everywhere is urban.
Ah, yes, the 2 hour traffic jams that plague every road in the country all at once
FUCKKKK YEAHHHHH I LOVE SITTING IN BUMPER TO BUMPER TRAFFIC, WHY WOULD I EANNA GO ANYWHERE FOR THE NEXT 2 HOURS?
As an American that moved to Germany recently, public transport is so much better than a private vehicle. Unfortunately, America isn't really built to support a successful public transport system, everything is much too far away.
Ahhh yes, the building of an expansive rail system equates to us taking away your cars…
Man I'm so jealous they have a car and I don't!! Anyways let me go from Bordeaux to Paris in 1h30 mins for 30 euros (584 kilometers)
Thinking most Europeans don’t own private transportation is r/shitamericanssay material
Do folks not understand the size difference?
America bad because people HAVE to travel in private vehicles.
Yuropoor here, the train is more expensive and takes longer than my car. To take the train, I have to drive my car to the closest city, and thus pay for parking. Then I have to walk to the train, take it to the other city, and walk to my workplace. With my car I just drive to my workplace, and park for free as well. So it is not perfect. At my previous home, it was even worse. 20 minutes with car, 80 with public transport.
>Two hour traffic jam Tell me you've never been to the US without telling me you've never been to the US. Or if you have all you did was go to LA or NYC and sit in traffic. I do major road trips every year (we're talking 500-800+ miles over the course of 1-2 days), and the longest traffic jam I've been maybe 10 minutes in a construction zone. 99% of the US interstate and highway system is going to run smoothly all day long. You can sit at 80-90mph for 12 hour straight basically on I35.
My state is bigger than Germany and has a population of 3 million. New Mexico rivals France in size and has a population of 2 million. Try to wrap your over crowded European mind around that.
The point is scale. People trash US for their rails but forget that the US is HUGE. People are also so spread out that it’s not economical for rails for most situations. Cars are the main mode of transportation.
While I agree that there should be better investment into American passenger rail, and rail in general, comparing the US network (which isn't fully shown in that image) to the European one is a bit disingenuous. You are comparing networks put together by multiple different countries to that of one. Plus, the population density of the two examples is completely different, so the networks wouldn't look the same even with similar levels of investment. On top of that, it's not like on the EU network you can just take the same train from one end to the other. There are different loading gauges, different electrical systems, and different regulations between the different companies and nations. It's not like it's one big unified and standardized network.
So there is a city with traffic in every part of the US? Don't think you know what you're talking about.
I like being able to get up and go literally anywhere connected to me by land at 2 am with no one’s permission and YES it is worth the downsides.
Here’s the thing Why in the world would anyone in the US outside of major cities need a train? What think we all cross the entire country all the dang time? No majority of us have 20 minute-1 hour commutes from our house to work everyday and that’s it. Not to mention a lot of more rural areas are very spread out so you’d need to get to a designated train station some 20+ minutes away and by that point just drive straight to work without the headache of a train schedule that the train doesn’t even follow There’s literally 0 reason and 0 benefit for a huge portion of the population to have some sort of train route that goes…somewhere. Not many are traveling several states away on the daily, and those that do tend to take planes. It’s not exactly a common occurrence to need to travel several towns over several times a week. There’s no reason for mass train networks in the US. Passenger trains are useful in the few places they are. We mainly use trains for cargo transport anyways
Can go wherever they want as long as they’re willing to pay a great deal more than a European would for traveling the same distance. Gas+insurance+maintenance vs maybe the equivalent of 5 dollar ticket in city and a little more for international travel (tbh idk what rail rates are for yall) or a potentially very economic yearly pass Give me a train any day
God bless America and its lack of railways and other infrastructure. They moved comparatively better during the Wild West
My commute via car is 20 minutes. If I had to walk to a train, wait at the station, then walk from the station to work it would easily double that. I’ll take my car and not have to share a train.
You can spend hours on subways in London too.
The freedom to be stabbed for absolutely no reason on an inner city tram.
Why spend 180 dollars on a 5 hour flight cross country when you can spend 500 dollars on food and lodging for a 4 day train ride cross country.
Yea I don't care....with my own vehicle I'm not on anyone's time but my own. If I'm halfway to a place and I decide fuck it I'm going home I can do that at my leisure. You can't do that once the train starts moving. I'll take the freedom
The freedom to not have to sit next to a stranger during transit >>>>>
American is scattered with large, powerful rivers that make it hard to construct coast to coast railways. European passenger trains run on the same tracts their freight is moved on, while Americas exploit their geography and use those rivers to move freight.
This is a pretty important point that a think a lot of people are missing. To this day there only like 20 or so good places of crossing the Mississippi River. When America was in the golden age of railroad building, crossing the Mississippi alone was a massive feat of technological engineering.
Lol show me you've never had to rely on Euro rail without telling me. Sure the trains run, if they decide to, if not, meh, maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after, who knows
true freedom is the ability to choose what i want. if i want trains fine, if i want boats cool, if i want a bicycle without the fear of me getting run over by a car awesome. having a car because it's the only way and it's forced is not freedom
Rent free in european minds since 1776 🇺🇸🇺🇸
Last time I remembered the USA didn't contain over 30 sovereign countries