You don’t need comparisons with China. The argument that one’s country is too big and expansive for rail only works when a) that country is poor, which the US is not; and b) when that country doesn’t already have the largest rail network in the world, which the US has.
American States often have an economy that is nominally larger than that of comparable European nations. Those States have rail for freight. The lack of good rail for passenger is a political choice.
It’s insane to have to remind people that cars didn’t always exist and the main way that people traveled before them was by rail. Like idk how most Americans picture the period between the current era and the oregon fucking trail but it sure seems like most of them think we were fording rivers and dying of dysentery right up to the day Henry Ford (the proud and outspoken nazi) invented the assembly line (added a conveyor belt to the process) and thereby bestowed mankind with the gift of the mass-produced automobile (the conversion of a public good into an industry that made him privately wealthy).
The politicians have been bribed to keep rail for freight as much as possible. The rail companies push to have longer and longer trains so that the passenger trains, which are supposed to have right of way on tracks, have to take the bypass tracks to let freight trains pass.
Freight also has one of the highest profit margins in a business at close to 50%, mostly b/c of them cutting every possible corner they can while maximizing load and shipping frequency.
The rail industry is need of regulation, overhaul, and infrastructure development.
You don’t need comparisons with China. The argument that one’s country is too big and expansive for rail only works when a) that country is poor, which the US is not; and b) when that country doesn’t already have the largest rail network in the world, which the US has.
American States often have an economy that is nominally larger than that of comparable European nations. Those States have rail for freight. The lack of good rail for passenger is a political choice.
It’s insane to have to remind people that cars didn’t always exist and the main way that people traveled before them was by rail. Like idk how most Americans picture the period between the current era and the oregon fucking trail but it sure seems like most of them think we were fording rivers and dying of dysentery right up to the day Henry Ford (the proud and outspoken nazi) invented the assembly line (added a conveyor belt to the process) and thereby bestowed mankind with the gift of the mass-produced automobile (the conversion of a public good into an industry that made him privately wealthy).
The politicians have been bribed to keep rail for freight as much as possible. The rail companies push to have longer and longer trains so that the passenger trains, which are supposed to have right of way on tracks, have to take the bypass tracks to let freight trains pass. Freight also has one of the highest profit margins in a business at close to 50%, mostly b/c of them cutting every possible corner they can while maximizing load and shipping frequency. The rail industry is need of regulation, overhaul, and infrastructure development.