re: China's bullet train that could go from NY to Chicago in 4.5 hours shows how behind US is

quote:

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Yes I will give you we are behind in passenger rail here in the US

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The rest of what you said is true, but I take issue with this statement.

It’s not the we are “behind”. It’s that the market chose freight instead of passengers and the market chose well. You can make a lot of money hauling freight over rail. You can’t make money with passengers.

It cannot be over-emphasized that even the NY subway system, with its huge ridership, loses money due to the colossal debt service on the construction bonds. Rail (especially subway) has massive construction (and eminent domain land acquisition in the case of non-subway) costs and you can’t charge people enough to make a return on the investment. Only with freight can you assess a high enough fee, and run often enough, to make money.

The advantage of air as a mode of passenger travel is that you don’t have to aquire the land the planes fly over.