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Its the same problem with long haul trips in the US. Chicago to Seattle is something like 44 hours, with nearly 40 stops. each one of those stops the train ha

Its the same problem with long haul trips in the US. Chicago to Seattle is something like 44 hours, with nearly 40 stops. each one of those stops the train has to slow down, stop, wait for a time, then accelerate. Most of those towns are TINY. These 5 in WI are within about 90 min of each other: Columbus, WI (CBS) Portage, WI (POG) Wisconsin Dells, WI (WDL) Tomah, WI (TOH) La Crosse, WI (LSE) There are 7 stops in ND. Can you name 7 cities in North Dakota? But for political reasons, they have to have stops in all those towns, to get congress to approve their funding.

curiousllama 5y ago
Living in Chicago, it always surprised me how, despite being a rail hub, it was totally impractical to take a train to another city (except Milwaukee). Flying or driving was almost always faster, and often cheaper.
- gautamdivgi 5y ago
  If you live in the burbs you're probably still better off driving to Milwaukee. Parking in Chicago itself would be more than the fuel charges and you're not reducing emissions since the track isn't electric anyway.
coryrc 5y ago
I've ridden this route several times. The main riders of that line are to or from the small towns along that route to a big town a state or two over. People drive or get dropped off at the station from the whole region. Remove those and you aren't going to have many customers.
- saalweachter 5y ago
  I feel like there's some realization crystalizing for me in this thread. Something like "planes are point to point transit, trains facilitate a linear flow of people".
  - josefx 5y ago
    There are high speed trains that only stop at a limited amount of stations along a track. Of course that requires that the track itself is rated for a high enough speed and going by the map in the article that is still a work in progress in several European countries.

curiousllama 5y ago

Living in Chicago, it always surprised me how, despite being a rail hub, it was totally impractical to take a train to another city (except Milwaukee). Flying or driving was almost always faster, and often cheaper.

gautamdivgi 5y ago
If you live in the burbs you're probably still better off driving to Milwaukee. Parking in Chicago itself would be more than the fuel charges and you're not reducing emissions since the track isn't electric anyway.

coryrc 5y ago

I've ridden this route several times. The main riders of that line are to or from the small towns along that route to a big town a state or two over. People drive or get dropped off at the station from the whole region. Remove those and you aren't going to have many customers.

saalweachter 5y ago
I feel like there's some realization crystalizing for me in this thread. Something like "planes are point to point transit, trains facilitate a linear flow of people".
- josefx 5y ago
  There are high speed trains that only stop at a limited amount of stations along a track. Of course that requires that the track itself is rated for a high enough speed and going by the map in the article that is still a work in progress in several European countries.