Why Can't America Have Great Trains?

[zardoz]

A rather interesting (to me) article in the National Journal. Although it is a bit lengthy, the writer raised some rather interesting points.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/amtrak-acela-high-speed-trains-20150417

 

[ACY Tom]

We do.  Freight trains.

Tom

[tree68]

Because we (as a nation) don't want them.

We want our cars.  We want to be there now.  The idea of taking three days to travel from NYC to LA by train is so foreign to most that they wouldn't even consider it.  We'd rather fly.  Or, if it's under a certain distance, we'll drive.

If it cost as much to drive those 500 miles as it does to take the train - we might think about it.

That, and all we hear on the news is how Amtrak is a total waste of taxpayer money...

[BaltACD]

There is no collective will to have a great passenger rail system among the population.

[Ulrich]

Define great. America does run great trains. Maybe they're not the "name trains" as they were in the 50s, but great in their own right. Look at these massive commuter operations in Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia.. the trains.. the whole system in fact.. is a fine piece of work, nothing short of great IMHO. The Amtrak folks are trying hard too and have made good progess in spite of the hurdles they face.  Great is all around us  for those of us who care to see it.    

[MARK STEVENS II]

Amtrak is more heavily involved with the government than the freight railroads. So any idea of change can take years of fighting just to get it on paper so that all sides can be happy. Also it would take a revolution to convince us to take a train over a car or to even flying there. The car gave us freedom to move whenever we want and I think that there is no going back, especially with the interstate system around.

   It's different in Europe, not everywhere has the highways that we do so they take the train. The countries over there also put more money into their railroads.

[gregc]

BaltACD

There is no collective will to have a great passenger rail system among the population.

isn't it economics and time.   why take a train when it's cheaper or less time to travel by air.

we took the train on business from NJ to Washington, D.C because it was comparable in price and less time (when you consider security and other delays in the terminal).

[NorthWest]

The traditional competativeness statistics that I have read indicate that passenger trains are at their most competative at journeys of 100-500 miles. Freight rail is most competative at journeys of 500+ miles. Compare the average journey in Europe or Japan to that in the United States. America isn't well suited geographically for a national HSR network.  

[zardoz]

I agree with all of the above posts. I just wonder why there are no "luxury" trains similar to the Rocky Mountaineer or the Canadian. The luxury service seems to be working north of the border. If people are willing to get on board a cruise liner with thousands of other vacationers crammed in, I would think there would be a market for a luxury train. Perhaps a nice circular route around the country over the course of a week or so.

Of course, where could such a train be successfully operated, with all those freight trains to dodge? I'm fairly sure no Class 1 railroad would welcome such a train. 

[Dakguy201]

zardoz

<snip> I would think there would be a market for a luxury train. Perhaps a nice circular route around the country over the course of a week or so.

Of course, where could such a train be successfully operated, with all those freight trains to dodge? I'm fairly sure no Class 1 railroad would welcome such a train. 

 

 

I believe there is a market for such a train; I'm just not sure how big it is.  In many ways I think it would be easier for a freight railroad to deal with compared to Amtrak as there would be much less need to maintain a schedule.  The train could travel primarily during the day and park nearly anywhere there is a siding for the night.

 

However, one of the problems I forsee is staffing such a train.  Staff would have to be chosen very carefully; and while I am sure there are many with Amtrak experience who would fit right into such a venture, there are others who would not.  

           

Mr. Ellis has a head start on understanding the opportunities and problems with such a venture, and perhaps his operation could expand into this someday.

 

    

[Gramp]

I think our best chance today of having train service in the US we can be truly proud of is the Texas Central / Japanese project between Dallas and Houston.  Amtrak unfortunately carries the baggage of intractable politics.

To have some Norman Rockwellian train service, maybe Disney should be hired as the contractor.  Otherwise, tacking private cars onto the end of trains seems to be the plausible way to offer elegant rail travel these days.

http://texascentral.com/

 

[Dr D]

As the price of gas goes up and air travel becomes more brutal trains are a real option - trouble is there are no trains and they don't go where folks want to go.  Detroit to New York has to go to Chicago - detrain - wait until the Chicago train goes - only a rail fan would get a thrill out of this - add surly staff - bad eats - and that tiny airline seat looks comfortable - never mind the strip search to board the plane - the trip is over in a couple of hours.

doc

[Leo_Ames]

Your font is all screwed up, Doc. ;)

Much easier to just leave it at the default setting, so that a surely unintended mistake such as that, won't happen. 

[Dr D]

Leo,

Yah keyed something as I was sending and thats what came out!  Looks kinda LOUD! 

Doc

[Wizlish]

You'd have to key more than one thing to get that effect, particularly as I see you turned boldface off on the last word .

If you just went to 36pt in the Font Sizes, you get this.

Then turn on boldface for this.

If you go to Format/Formats/Headings/Heading1, it sets this for the whole paragraph. 

But in every case, it's not exactly an accidental thing.

There is one thing that is effectively missing from the formatting tools in the Forum, though, and that is an easy way to revert to the normal settings from whatever weird formatting might be selected 'by accident'. 

Programmers (and script-kiddie wannabees) think it's perfectly OK to provide a choice like Format/Formats/Block/Paragraph -- without any documentation or functional online help or manpages -- and then expect an older generation of railfans to figure it out like gamerz.  All that's needed is a 'Normal' style choice, perhaps in the Format menu since the paragraph menu is so carefully hidden, but it would have to work across multiple kinds of modifications so the spam-in-a-can 'development environment' may not have the proper kinds of scripting tools for the kids to code it.  Nonetheless, I think they should try.