How about some better railway service in the U.S.

[kmmatney]

Well, I travel a lot with my job, and I have a flight to New York on Sunday. I wouldn't mind taking a train if it wasn't more expensive than flying! I think its about time the U.S. invest into a better railway system. We are already getting to the point where the number of air travel passengers is hard to manage. There's no reason why some high speed trains couldn't be developed to reduce the need for air travel.

Is there even any other company besides Amrak? I can't even log into their site now, too busy.

 

[yodel]

I think it's a great idea. Lot less a chance of someone wanting to hijack a railroad car. Our country does rely too much on air travel. Although I bet we'll see a drastic decline in air travel now.

 

[kranky]

One of the biggest factors is that the public looks at the federal money spent on Amtrak as an unnecessary subsidy, and they don't look at what is spent on air travel and highways the same way. The amount of money spent on salt - not the labor and equipment, just the salt - for clearing roads in the winter is about the same amount as the goverment spends on Amtrak. It's a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of billions the government spends on air travel infrastructure and the hundreds of billions for highways each year.

If the airlines had to pay for their own infrastructure the same way they expect railroads to, air travel would be only affordable by millionaires. It's up to the public to demand investment in better rail travel.