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Thats because there is a cultural difference between how americans and europeans see trains. For americans its something quaint and wild whereas for europeans i
by hjdehdfhjkj 8y ago
Thats because there is a cultural difference between how americans and europeans see trains. For americans its something quaint and wild whereas for europeans its just a basic form of transportation.
- chrisseaton 8y agoI once saw a large party of school children going on a trip on the Caltrain. Turned out they weren't going anywhere... it was just going on the train that was the activity. A commuter train running alongside a highway through urban sprawl. They were whooping when it pulled into the station.
- war1025 8y agoI've taken the train in Minneapolis from the mall to downtown several times, purely for the novelty of it. We have a lot of freight trains in Iowa. Passenger, not so much.
- beat 8y agoI live a few blocks from that train, so I wind up taking it all the time to get to the mall or downtown. The novelty wears off, and you wind up mostly worried about having to share your ride with packs of unruly teenagers, or sports fans heading downtown who can't resist saying racist things about our various African immigrant neighbors. It's a pleasure or a drag, depending on the manners of those who share the ride.
- NoNameHaveI 8y agoOne Iowan to another: you didn't ride a train in Minneapolis. You rode a streetcar (tram in British). And yes, only the southeast corner of Iowa is served at all by passenger rail. Would be nice if they extended the Hawkeye Express to CR, or better yet, Amtrak service from Davenport to IC to DSM. Alas, not enough $$$ to make it worth doing.
- strictnein 8y agoThe Northstar line north of Minneapolis is a "real" train that run on normal tracks: https://www.metrotransit.org/northstar-line https://www.metrotransit.org/northstar-line The lines that goes between the Mall of America, downtown Minneapolis, and St Paul are light rail, and are faster than what would normally be considered a "tram" or "streetcar".
- war1025 8y agoI'd think it still counts as being a train. Obviously it's short-distance light rail, but it's still got all the main feature's of a train. I mainly mentioned it since the parent comment was about a group of girls getting on the train purely for the experience of being on the train, and my experience seemed pretty similar. Don't know that it terribly matters one way or the other though I guess.
- CydeWeys 8y agoIf you really want to get technical, the key defining characteristic of a train is that it consists of multiple connected railway vehicles that move together. A railway vehicle is of course a vehicle that runs on tracks. So there are some tram/streetcar/light rail systems out there (like the one in New Orleans) that consist of individual railway vehicles, and are thus not trains.
- null000 8y agoAmtrak is heavy rail - that's light rail, which is kinda different.
- adwww 8y agoHa my children both did that in preschool (aged about 3) here in the UK. I don't think it would have been many children's first trip either, just a cheap morning's entertainment for the nursery...
- komali2 8y ago>large party of school children going on a trip on the Caltrain. Haha when I took Caltrain daily to mountain view this was my nightmare. Bluetooth headphones and a white noise app were a requirement. Those field trip days, and the rides home on baseball game days... I do not miss that commute.
- GrifMD 8y agoKnowing I was going to miss the last "Baby Bullet" out of SF to San Jose because a meeting ran late was one of the biggest kick in the guts. I do not miss that commute at all.
- my_usernam3 8y agoI take the Caltrain almost daily to mountain view, and I feel the exact opposite. Usually I look around and everyone has their bose headphones on while working on their macbook pro. It feels like were all drones, working 24/7 waiting to die. Where as game days/school trips are the highlight of my commute, it feels more human IMO. I grew up in the eastbay, and at least while I was growing up, the bart train was a friendly environment of people interacting with one another. Obviously it came with some not so pleasant things (i.e. homelessness and unwanted touching) but more human none-the-less.
- mav3rick 8y agoIf you don't mind me asking where did you move to ?
- komali2 8y agoDowntown SF
- dawnerd 8y agoWe did a school trip to ride the surfliner from Ventura to Santa Barbara a few times. Also once to ride the historic train in Fillmore. Good times.
- Lukeas14 8y agoWhile it's fun for the kids it's also important for them to get used to and respect trains. I've found that kids who grow up in places where trains aren't as popular don't develop a healthy fear of them. When my son saw train tracks for the first time at 2 yrs old his first reaction was to run towards them. So trips like these can teach kids how to properly act at a train station.
- spectrum1234 8y agoWhen I first read fear I thought you meant of the terrible infrastructure of trains in the US :)
- rthomas6 8y agoI mean, my 4 year old son begs me to go on the train all the time.
- busterarm 8y agoI used to like to ride the Staten Island Ferry in both directions in the middle of the night just for the peacefulness of it. That and long 3am walks through midtown east/UES were fantastic ways to clear my head.
- ritchiea 8y agoTrains can also be pretty quaint in Europe today now that low cost airlines like Easyjet and Ryanair offer cheap flights to most major cities. I live in Berlin and even domestic trains are far more expensive than domestic flights to medium and large cities.
- iandanforth 8y agoIgnorant American question. Why is this the case? What are the costs that railroads are having to pay that makes them more expensive?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- dang 8y agoI misread the comment the same way at first, but he was clearly just being polite and self-deprecating.
- MisterScrooge 8y agoGood point - that's 100% my bad. I wish I could retract my comment, but I don't think there's a way; I appreciate your insight.
- dang 8y agoSince we're the only ones in the subthread, I'll just delete your comment. (Am a moderator here in case that's not clear.)
- MisterScrooge 8y agoThat makes sense. I knew I had seen your scree name before lol. Thank you - much appreciated.
- 8y ago
- artofgo 8y agoI wouldn't say that difference holds for all americans. The trains in northeast corridor, which serve ~50 million people (~15% of us population) also have no-talking cars. But to your point, train service is treated as a basic form of transportation there.
- reaperducer 8y agoThat's a wild generalization, based on a lack of experience or knowledge. A number of passenger railroads in the United States also have quiet cars. Metra comes to mind, but I know I've seen others. For americans its something quaint and wild whereas for europeans its just a basic form of transportation You're either repeating outdated cliches from the internet, or you must not live in a large metropolitan area with passenger train service.
- TheRealEdAbbey 8y agoIn America, "large metropolitan area with passenger train service" is the exception, not the norm.
- Frondo 8y agoI don't think this is actually true. Looking at the top 20 metropolitan statistical areas in the US, you're already at nearly half the population of the US. And I know from the experience of having ridden commuter rail in most of those that most of them have commuter rail, i.e. passenger train service. You've got to go pretty far down the list to find one without commuter rail or even a subway/light rail system (which I'm not counting as passenger train service). If it isn't the majority, it's at least a normal experience for a huge swath of the population.
- null000 8y agoI'm reminded of the three panel meme comic. "Yeah, we have passenger train service" "good passenger train service?" "Hey, lets not get ahead of ourselves"