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The US is the leader when it comes to freight transport via rail. That's why our passenger rail is so crappy -- rail transport companies make plenty of money w

The US is the leader when it comes to freight transport via rail. That's why our passenger rail is so crappy -- rail transport companies make plenty of money with freight and have zero interest in messing it up by having barely loaded passenger trains use the lines. I would also add that there is this really large mountain range that divides the heavily populated West Coast from the rest of the continent. Anyone who has ever driven on I-90, I-40, I-10, or I-8 between can tell you just how large it is. The lowest pass I can think of is ~4000 feet. There are a few European rail routes that go that high, but there are zero bullet trains that do.

betterunix2 8y ago
There is far more to the story than freight companies being uninterested in serving passenger trains. There is also the fact that many of the efficient routes we had a century ago are gone, in some cases even the tracks have been removed; the fact that railroads must compete with heavily subsidized highways and airports; and the fact that we over-regulate passenger rail service (compared to Europe, our trains are much heavier and more expensive to operate). There is also the chronic under-investment in local public transit throughout the country, which makes trains less convenient in the numerous medium-sized cities that exist between major metropolitan areas. Amtrak also inherited "deferred maintenance" at its various stations and on the Northeast Corridor, and they are still trying to dig out of that hole (the fact that their funding is approved annually makes some of the larger projects difficult to plan).