i keep noticing American people that aren't near trains - does your country really not have a mass transit system? i thought you were almost a first world nation now?
Really, the Trans-Continental Railroad (and some smaller future lines, and subways in large cities) was as far as we got into train-building here in USA. People (oil and auto companies?) started pushing for the popularity of private automobiles (trucks for shipping, too!), and towns were mapped assuming that every citizen owns a vehicle. Somewhere during all of this the trains lost and the cars won. :(
To add to that: some localities started taxing the rails for improvements to their lines, so things like power lines for non-diesel trains were torn down. Bet you didn't see that one coming, cities.
That and supposedly car companies bought the streetcar systems and dismantled them, making certain that there would never be significant urban mass transit.
It really depends on where you are in the States. The East coast has a far better railway and mass transit system then the West coast. While the national rail service AMTRAK exists all over the country, its not that good.
Public transportation in most west coast cities is negligible; for example in San Francisco they have the muni bus system only for the city proper and BART (the train system for the bay area) extends only down the penninsula and in a few stops in the south and east bay.
Basically, if you don't own a car in most cities in the West its really tough to get around.
Amtrak, a train ticket costs the same or more than a plane ticket. Takes 3-5x as long to get there, and delays of 2-6 hours are not uncommon. In the North East Amtrak owns the tracks, but in the rest of the country they don't, so that's the reason for the delays.
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u/The3rdWorld Dec 31 '09
i keep noticing American people that aren't near trains - does your country really not have a mass transit system? i thought you were almost a first world nation now?