re: Every developed country has high speed rail, why are so many against it in the U.S.?

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High speed rail works best as point to point and 600 miles or less Air works better over 600 miles and odd destinations

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Agree on the over 600 miles.

Anything over 600 more than justifies the delays in air travel. At 600 miles, even going on a train at 100 mph you are still stuck on a train for 6 hours. But that is not how US trains run, most have stops every so many miles so your speed gets hampered by all the stops.


Air travel gives you the most options in the form of different carriers and there are multiple options in large cities of when to leave.

Train travel today is so limited. There is only one train that leaves New Orleans to the west, The Sunset Limited, and it runs 3 days a week and takes 47 hours to get to Los Angeles. Heck just the trip to Houston is a 9 hour ordeal. You can do that by car in about 5 hours. A flight is only 50 minutes.

The City of New Orleans runs daily to Chicago, but it takes a 19 hours to get there.

The Crescent runs to Atlanta, Washington, and New York daily, but that takes a whopping 32 hours to get to NYC.


My point is that even with the fastest trains, the number of stops needed to make them accessible to the general public would outweigh the cost of other forms of travel.

Because not only do you have to build multi billions of dollars of high speed rail, you also need to spend millions if not billions more in other upgrades to train stations, bridges, and other needed infrastructure for the trains. Heck even some of these high speed trains are electric so that is even more strain on the utility grid.

Then you also have to deal with Railroad Unions and other labor issues that drive up the cost of rail travel.

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We have the "barely high speed" Acela routes - that is currently the best candidates for upgrading to true high speed rail.

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I've taken the Acela Express from NY to DC for variety. It's definitely more comfortable than flying, but not cheaper or faster.

frick a train.

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From a guy old enough to remember rail travel in the US, it was awesome

Real food cooked on the train, not made weeks earlier and nuked on a plane

Merican
Seats for poor folks
Rooms for middle class
Private cars for rich folks

They all had access to ...
Dining Car
Bar Car
Observation Car

Good seating
No social media so folks interacted for 2 - 3 days as you crossed the US

Service unheard of in todays world

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Sounds like Heaven.

Jet age killed it.

Have you ever ridden on MARTA?!?

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Every developed country has high speed rail, why are so many against it in the U.S.?

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The study is still ongoing.

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why are so many against it in the U.S.?

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Because you have no control over who gets on the train with you.

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Jet age killed it.

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Not really, if you remember airlines like Piedmont, coat and tie for men and dress for the ladies. Smaller planes and direct flights. Good booze and actual meals on every flight.

Then the "greed is good" MBA's showed up in the 80's and seating shrunk, more like sardines in a can. Food disappears. Big causal in patrons and manners went good bye. Social media and earbuds means no more learning about new places and people from those random folks you were seated next to.

Jets were less the issue, and profits over service was the real villain.

If you fly private I agree, but how many folks today fly private

Get on the plane 5 mins before takeoff
No check in delays
No baggage limits
Non stop where private gets you takeoff to touchdown in 2 hours is 8 hours flying public with time wasted at airports to get one and then again to switch planes to destination
Vehicle waiting as you deplane and straight to hotel or home


Hence the high speed rail as it is more like flying private. High speed, few stops and no switching / connecting trains. Say Chicago / Nashville no stop high speed.

While even normal speed and multiple stop take more time, you arrive more rested and far less stress than flying commercial. A few years ago I flew commercial and had to leave 7am and arrive 1 am the next morning for a trip in a car I could have done in about 8 hours. (2 airports in CAN and 2 in USA just to get home). This is why the younger set lives in a place like ATL where you are hub, not a connector.