4 ms·

Europe has gas prices of >5$/Gallon, and treats at least the rail system as a public service like roads. 'Nuff said.

saiya-jin 11y ago
Guys, as an european, i despise a bit US approach you-cannot-get-anywhere-without-a-car (seriously, looking back at my stay in LA and Hollywood 10 years ago, many places didn't even have pedestrian access! Or if they had, approach time was 2-3x more compared to dangerous walking along the road... that's just plain wrong). That said... trains are expensive. No, EXPENSIVE. Swiss have probably best rail system in the world, with train stations being central point of most towns and villages. Buses are just complementary where putting up rail track would be ridiculous (hardcore mountain areas, desolate places with very few people living). But Suisse is small, and wealthy. Not sure about actual cash flow government -> SBB (rail company), but tickets are expensive like hell. Cost wise even for single person road costs same (albeit sometimes it's faster by car, depends), when more people come, car is much cheaper (and convenient). Never been to japan, so no clue how well known Shinkanzen are integrated with more local transport. Thanx to freaking unions for steady high prices, but not only them. When moving between densely populated areas, trains compete with planes, not cars (and planes are sometimes much cheaper, sometimes faster, sometimes not). If in future we'll get trains moving steadily over 500 km/h, that would be a proper time saving advantage over longer distances. Airports became such a time and energy drain, with ridiculous and annoying security measures that most probably doesn't work anyway, just hikes the price and takes time. Let's not forget fragility of rail network, any delay/accident can have massive cascading effect that stretches far across network, much more compared to cars and planes (well, here it's more complicated for those with connecting flights)

Guys, as an european, i despise a bit US approach you-cannot-get-anywhere-without-a-car (seriously, looking back at my stay in LA and Hollywood 10 years ago, many places didn't even have pedestrian access! Or if they had, approach time was 2-3x more compared to dangerous walking along the road... that's just plain wrong). That said... trains are expensive. No, EXPENSIVE. Swiss have probably best rail system in the world, with train stations being central point of most towns and villages. Buses are just complementary where putting up rail track would be ridiculous (hardcore mountain areas, desolate places with very few people living). But Suisse is small, and wealthy. Not sure about actual cash flow government -> SBB (rail company), but tickets are expensive like hell. Cost wise even for single person road costs same (albeit sometimes it's faster by car, depends), when more people come, car is much cheaper (and convenient). Never been to japan, so no clue how well known Shinkanzen are integrated with more local transport. Thanx to freaking unions for steady high prices, but not only them. When moving between densely populated areas, trains compete with planes, not cars (and planes are sometimes much cheaper, sometimes faster, sometimes not). If in future we'll get trains moving steadily over 500 km/h, that would be a proper time saving advantage over longer distances. Airports became such a time and energy drain, with ridiculous and annoying security measures that most probably doesn't work anyway, just hikes the price and takes time. Let's not forget fragility of rail network, any delay/accident can have massive cascading effect that stretches far across network, much more compared to cars and planes (well, here it's more complicated for those with connecting flights)