• cardboardboxfort@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    Trains work great in the USA. We didn’t invent them but we’ve sure had our way with them.

    • We have thousands of miles of track which ships millions of tons of freight every year.
    • We have a system of moving passengers around the country which, while not perfect, still manages to function despite multiple alternatives.
    • We have thousands of miles of commuter trains around metropolises that move people to the city and out of the city everyday.
    • We have above ground light rail trolleys in some places, though not as many as we once had.
    • We have multiple kinds of underground trains; ones that move people through subways and ones that move material out of mines.
    • We even have trains that are purely for entertainment value, usually called heritage railroads or tourist trains.
    • Oh and lots of airports have a small automatically controlled train that ferries passengers along the terminals.
    • kestrel7_7@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      20 hours ago

      The USA has the largest passenger rail network on earth… if you’re willing to hop freight. Schedules & customer service leave something to be desired.

      • cardboardboxfort@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        20 hours ago

        And the precursors to the freight companies were often the railroad companies themselves who at one time offered passenger service until the services became unprofitable. Society killed mass passenger service. The government then bailed them out and created a subsidized passenger rail service, which the public widely mocked for decades, because car culture was king.

        And while this was happening the more profitable sectors of passenger railroads in the USA (big city subways/trolleys and metropolis rail) were actually profitable and experienced a continued growth for the most part. Amtrak still has its problems but has achieved some success in these areas (east coast is better suited for passenger rail and sure enough Amtraks most popular lines are on the east coast.)