Still surprises me how few train lines America has.
Interesting! I just happened to take my first Amtrak rides ever in November/December (around the Thanksgiving holiday), so I guess I contributed to it. They announced that the train was completely sold out, but they also said that that’s the busiest travel time of the year.
Let me guess, the article is framing this as a problem to be solved?
Surprisingly, no. The framing of the article isn’t bad and they have nothing poor to say about Amtrak (there’s a lot to criticize imo). A couple things stood out: the article praises Amtrak overall, highlighting a quote early on about how they are modernizing and expanding rail travel in the US and there is zero mention of HSR.
A puff piece for Amtrak, though I’d love to see them actually modernize and expand services so that they are reliable, take priority over freight, modernize to include extensive HSR networks, expand their stations to more areas, and keep prices low enough to incentivize rail travel over car travel. My experiences with Amtrak have been quite bad, though I love traveling by train, so I may be a bit more critical of them.
An interesting quote that stood out that really puts the state of travel in the US into perspective:
Since 1950, the population has more than doubled and the number of motor vehicles registered has increased sixfold.
I suspect the angle will eventually become “give all the new profitable routes to private industry”
still better than no trains
Wait, hold on, this might work.
Frame Maglev and stuff as “innovation”, and part of what has added to the northeast and west coast’s property values with alternatives to cars.
Invite Charles Marohn and have him discuss that HSR is profitable and typically rail infrastructure is at the very least less unprofitable than highways.
