Gas Prices? What About Making Trains All They Could Be?

Here we go again — blaming everything on the oil companies for the spiraling cost of gasoline. How about we try something positive for a change, say, restoring our passenger trains? For decades, Europe has paid double what the U.S. pays for gas, and just look at the trains they have. Every day, thousands of passenger trains — conventional and high-speed — whisk tourists and business people across the continent.

Of course, Europe has a plan for trains. Addiction prevents that here. So addicted have Americans become to the automobile we have forgotten all that railroads were — and could be again. Indeed, our plan would begin with some national soul-searching about why we lost our passenger trains in the first place. On May 1, 1971, the railroads deeded to Amtrak just 180 trains. As late as 1960, the railroads had operated at least 5,000.

Simply, a new generation of railroad executives wished to downsize, dropping passengers for more profitable freight. Freight trains, or so the railroads also argued, did not need faster, double track. The inescapable irony is that America abandoned the passenger train just when the environment needed it most. Need any American be convinced of that, watching the march of asphalt and urban sprawl?

EDIT

A single railroad track, just 6 feet across, has the capacity of a superhighway 10 times wider. As for energy savings, even the most conservative studies give trains an advantage of 4 to 1 over cars and airplanes. In short, we would not allow our plan to die protesting the "economics." Sure, railroads cost money to build and operate, but has anyone looked at the airlines lately — $36 billion in losses just since 9/11. Moreover, how about the cost of highways? In 2005, Congress authorized $286 billion for them, even as critics pounced on Amtrak for losing $1 billion.

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http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=communique&newsid=12049

big honkin' cars...why if Americans started taking trains then next you know they'll want buses and such. Heck they may start TALKING to one another on the train and you don't know where that might lead!

Um...no, the Republicans and Democrats think it's best if Americans continue to take their private cars even if it's a very short trip to the store. That way they stay to themselves and don't dare create COMMUNITY!

:sarcasm:

trains on the continent are great (from what ive been told, havent travelled on any otuside of britain for about 3 years) but in britain they are a joke
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4997572.stm
can be traced back to privatisation of the rail network. funny that...

trains are an excellent way to travel, and i would use them more often if they werent so expensive (at the moment i get a lift in someone's car if i need to go anywhere as i dont drive)

travel by train. They were awesome - clean, running on time, etc.

If we had viable options here to travel by train, maybe a lot of us could get by with smaller vehicles for our city driving.

My brother has said exactly what you did about trains in Britain, though.

Just got back from my third trip (stupid me) on that line. Left Oakland 5 hrs late and arrived Seattle 11 hrs late. My other two trips were also delayed for some reason or other.

last time i was on the continent i went to czech republic and hungary and the public transport was brilliant. trams, metro (underground) and buses all working like clockwork. not sure what the status is with ownership (privatised/nationalised) but i suspect nationalised since it actually worked!

...but only when compared to mainland Europe and a few places like Japan. Compared to the US (or even NZ, for that matter) the UK's train system is the pinacle of speed and reliability - Which gives you some idea of how crap it can get!

due to time constraints - a freight shipment can travel over days, people are much more picky about theier travel times.

For a passenger train to work, you need 1000 other people going in the same direction, from the same point, at the same time as you. This only happens in dense areas - like the northeast corridor and europe.

When people have a choice, they choose their cars: it's available to leave RIGHT NOW, it's parked outside or even down the block, and it takes the most direct route to the destination. The 20% or so of adults that smoke can smoke in their cars. You can stop and eat whatevers available. For most people, the car is already a sunk cost: they already own and insure the car.

Not that I don't support train use, nor do I think that their use shouldn't be expanded in the US. In fact, I believe that the rail right of ways should be nationalized and expanded, though I am against nationalizing the actual rolling stock. However, I believe that the benefits to freight far outweigh the benefits to passengers.

To make rail freight more competitive with road freight, we need to fairly assess road damages caused by tractor trailers, we need to fairly assess environmental damages caused by oil & coal use, we need to expand our rail network, and we need to fairly assess the waste caused by underbuilding in areas served by transportation infrastructure.

Note that about 1/3d of rail-freight ton-miles are coal, which is generally run at fairly low speeds. Reducing our use of coal, would open up time slots and raise average speeds on freight lines.

There's nothing quite like following a 200 car freight train up the grade into the rockies at a whopping 5 miles an hour.

will suddenly become more attractive as passenger vehicles, particularly if they electrified as they will be. Suddenly there will be lots of people going the same way by rail. Rail service will be improved and high speed in places that retain an industrial base. (That may not include the US: We may travel by mule.

Rail were important means of passenger transport for over a century. They can become so again.

I'd like to take the train more, but every time I have taken the train it's been VERY late. Hours. Many hours. Like 8.

Not only late, but I've been on trains that ran out of food, train cars that screeched horribly the WHOLE DAMN WAY FROM CHICAGO TO SACRAMENTO and TWO trains that had to stop in BFE to abandon a malfunctioning train car. Not to mention trains where the whole train was so fucking late that the engine crew had to be switched in bumfuck Nevada (not even a TOWN... we're talking the MIDDLE OF THE DESERT) and let's not forget the train that hit a car. Yes, hit a car.

All this in TWO (2) trips across the country taken in 2001 and 2004.

On edit:

And it's not like it's cheap, either. It's more expensive than plane travel (or comparable) and coach is frankly quite the adventure.

It's not even a particularly funny one - merely pathetic and irritating, like an inept magic show put on by your supervisor's 7-year-old son.