3 ms·

There are lots of potential high-traffic corridors, and the US is still incapable of serving them.

• xnx 6mo ago
  Hard to find an unserved corridor where train makes more sense than plane or car.
  • troupo 6mo ago
    US East Cost. The area is about the size of Japan with similar popilation. And there are only a few disjointed efforts.
    • llbbdd 6mo ago
      On the East Coast they have trains that go to the front door of your house?
      • troupo 6mo ago
        Didn't know that Japanese trains (or European trains) go to the door of your house
        • llbbdd 6mo ago
          Exactly, why would the US want to copy that?
          • troupo 6mo ago
            Northeast Corridor 2200 trains a day, 15 million passengers a year, 14% of intercity traffic, replacing most air travel between some of the cities.
• fragmede 6mo ago
  The Brightline in Florida exists, as does the Acela on the East Coast. These things are entirely possible in the US, we just don't seem to want them enough.
  • ssl-3 6mo ago
    Sorta, kinda. Suppose in some hypothetical future, we can take the (expensive) train to our destination in Somewhere, USA, and it drops us off. So there we are, at a train station in Somewhere, USA. What happens next? A bus? Light rail? Uber/Lyft/taxi? A friend who has time to show up? Renting a car? What's our next move? (Lots of destinations don't have much for local public transport.) For contrast: When I drive myself to Somewhere, I've still got my car to use after I get there. I can go anywhere I want to go, at any time I choose to do so, and I can bring as much stuff and as many people as suits me without much additional cost. I don't have to wait around for a train. I don't have to deal with checking luggage, or retrieving luggage. I can just pop into town -- with my car -- and set forth to do whatever I want. The bags can ride along with me until I get to wherever it is that I'm crashing for the night and until then, they don't present any particular burden at all. I might have been better-rested if I took the hypothetical train, but getting dropped off at a train station isn't a very complete solution.
    • troupo 6mo ago
      Ah yes. The entirely hypothetical situation that doesn't exist anywhere in the world
      • ssl-3 6mo ago
        It can exist. Just add trains. The lack of other public transportation is already real in much of the US. (If we're not adding trains, then there's really nothing here to talk about in this context -- is there?)
      • llbbdd 6mo ago
        Those places are comfortable with subpar transit conditions. There's nothing actually individually desirable about taking the train compared to having a private car take you directly between points A and B, people just seem to shy away from admitting that in favor of pro-social signaling in support of public transit.