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.)
![[Satire] Welp, I'm convinced. Trains are a futile pursuit in the US](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/6be9b37d-d56e-4710-ba21-8db0b4c67cf9.png){kind=link}
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.
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.)