[raviolo]

I hope one day we stop comparing rail to cars on passenger-mile basis - like infrastructure costs per passenger-mile. These are apples and oranges. There is zero similarities between riding on modern trains and driving.

I’ve taken hundreds of trips, anywhere between 2 and 8 hours, on TGV, ICE, and Eurostar trains in Europe. I loved it every time and came out refreshed even after longer trips. At times when I wanted to get work done (probably 60-75% of total time spent on trains) I was as productive - likely more productive, due to lack of distractions - as at the office. In contrast, I don’t think I can remember any road trip lasting more than 2 hours when I could say I enjoyed it; many times I was so exhausted that I needed rest upon arriving to destination.

So, if we are going to try to fit this into some sort of economic model let’s not forget about countless billions of hours of productivity loss due to people stuck behind the wheel staring at traffic.

Not to mention both emotional and physical strain associated with driving (nope, can not stand up when you like, or walk over to the buffet car for a coffee), respective health care costs, and more productivity losses. Once we do that, the picture will be very different. It’s sad we in the US haven’t realized this yet.