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America, exblain (europe.pub)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
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[–] 14 points 1 week ago (6 children)

But, but, but, trains are communism!

Seriously, though, far too many Americans still tie their identity to their vehicle. The stupid notion of rugged American individualism has really held the country back.

There are plenty of other things, but I'm just pointing out this one.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (5 children)

    that's probably not helped by trains being more expensive and slower than cars or planes, and not even letting you have any spontaneity in your trips.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    More expensive and slower?

    I can buy not letting you have much spontaneity if your country/area doesn't have an extensive network.

    But trains are way cheaper than cars, and on almost every case, faster.

    I commute to work by taking the train from one city to another, and then I take the metro to get to the office. I pay 10€/mo for this. It still takes me the same time it would take by car, without accounting for parking and taking the car out of the garage and any traffic at all.

    I can also take high speed rail to go on vacation to almost anywhere, even in other countries. But just staying within my country, I can pay ~30€ to get to somewhere ~600km away, in just 3h.

    I can also get a 30€/mo card, which allows me to take almost any train in the whole country during that month, with the only exception of most high speed lines.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Amtrak, it sucks everywhere except the far east of the US.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago

    Yeah that's because of a lot of policy and organizational issues. We could very much have a west coast corridor and a great lakes corridor akin to the northeast one. It'll be a lot of money upfront and cities like Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee will need decent metropolitan transit (think more Seattle than Chicago). But it could very well be an important piece of the revitalization of the great lakes region.

    Fundamentally though, Amtrak needs to be allowed to own the rails, which high speed rail is a great opportunity for, and it needs to have the money and breathing room to invest in improving service.

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