Are we re-training America?

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An unfair comparison: I agree that trains are great, and cost/fuel efficent in many circumstances. I just feel led to point out that it is not merely an issue of retraining America. There are demographic/geographic considerations that mean we may not be able to just copy Europe.

Trains are highly efficient in travelling between population centers. But throughout a large portion of the midwest a lot of population movement is not between population centers (as is the norm across most of europe). We have to remeber that Europe has been 'developing' about three times longer than America (in a western civilization sense) and the result is the most of Europe has a higher, more evenly spread out population density. The result is a system that is almost designed for train travel.

That is not the case outside of the east coast (and maybe part of the west coast). Before I think we should start 'retraining' America we need to answer two questions:

1. Why has rail travel failed in the east coast (Amtrak is a financial disaster)?

2. Is rail travel the most efficient form of travel in the midwest, or are there lighter infrastructure measures (i.e. busses, smart-car micro-rental programs) which are better long term solutions?

I have yet to see either question answered (even from those who tout rail travel the strongest...hem hem....Harry). Until then I am indifferent to rail development (and a little miffed at federal expenditures on programs like Amtrak).; Posted by: aalhc5@... Posted on: 07/20/09 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use