Because trucking lobby. And airline lobby. And highway construction lobby. Etc. etc.
this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Because the tracks are all owned by private entities and slow, long barely regulated cargo trains take precedence over passenger rail.
Oh and building new rails through expensive suburbs between the cities is prohibitively expensive because of our eminent domain laws.
Also: NIMBY
That's what's been a major problem for California HSR.
Long slow freight trains make sense for the things they are used for in the US. Europe is worse than the US for not having those long slow freight trains.
Fast passengers trains make sense for moving humans around. The US is worse of for not having them.
The point is don't compare passenger and freight trains. They have different constraints and should not be mixed.
The problem in the US is that there aren’t separate tracks for passenger rail, and that the freight trains are owned by the same company that owns the tracks so they can tell Amtrak to wait.
Also those companies have been making trains longer and longer, so long they don’t fit in the sidetracks. So even if they wanted to be nice to Amtrak they can’t.
The solution would be to build a passenger rail network but then you run into regulations and eminent domain and NIMBYism.
They don't just cause problems for Amtrak either. Sometimes trains are so long that, when parked, there's no where to put them except right through the middle of a town, blocking roads
Where passenger rail makes the most sense Amtrak owns their own tracks (with a couple exceptions) and they still can't figure out how to run great service.
Maybe it’s just because Americans are idiots who can’t do things right, then.
Americans are humans. We are not smarter or dumber than any other human. We might be stupid in different ways from you, but those are subtitle variations and mostly about people (everyone) ignoring how they are stupid.
I am, unfortunately, an American. Though not by choice.
And compared to other countries we are far stupider.
Who cares what Americans think?
Mate I would love for more Americans to be asking why they don't have better public transport, they're one of the world's most polluting countries and reducing their car dependency would do a lot to fix improve that. If France being good at making trains just happens to also get it into American political discourse, great
American here. I'd love it but train plans often fail because most US cities have garbage tier options after you get off the train. We need busses that run on time, protected bike lines (not just paint on a 55mph road), and many other alternatives to help make trains more viable. Places where you see trains and light rail in the US often have good alternatives for connecting citizens to those train routes other than cars.
I used to reverse commute in Chicago to my car in the burbs. I still needed the car because ordering Uber and being on time for work every day was not a good alternative and it would have been a 10 MI bike ride after an hour long train ride every day.
My body is ready for trains. I hate airports. However, most people don't want them until they have one. LA is the most recent example I can think of this.
What most Americans get is transit for people who after 5 DWIs can't get their friends to drive them anymore. What we need is transit that gets you from where you are to where you want to be, when you want to be there, in a reasonable amount of time, for a reasonable price. Miss any of those and a car is better - sure cars are expensive, but it still meets all of the above (including a perceived reasonable price) That of course leaves out anyone who cannot drive.
I'm British myself, so unfortunately I'm right there with you in the "early adopters of rail that are bad at it now" camp. Trains are absolutely my favourite way to travel if it's an option, but they are slow and prohibitively expensive here. Fortunately most of our bigger cities have decent bus situations or similar alternatives, so before and after the train is alright
Ok yeah, fair point
These new TGVs indeed look cool