[rafram]

The US moves more of its freight by rail than any other country in the world, and it’s not even close [1]. This just isn’t a very thoroughly researched article.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_freight_transport#Regiona...

[eigenspace]

That doesn't really contradict what that person was saying. They just said that only Americans call trains old fashioned. That can be true at the same time as it's true that American industry makes heavy use of freight trains.

[lostlogin]

The other reply to the parent comment give a link that ranks the US lower.

But whatever the actual ranking, the volume of rail freight is very high.

[RandallBrown]

The lower ranking is total mileage tons while the highest ranking is percentage of freight moved by train.

The US ranks decently high in passenger miles as well, but that's just because we're a huge country, not because trains are regularly used by people in the US.

[bombcar]

I suspect the vast majority of passenger miles on rail in the USA are local transit and light and heavy intercity short-commute rail.

Not the long-distance Amtraks across the country.

[RandallBrown]

I guess I should have used a different word but I meant huge to imply a large population as well as area. The US is the 3rd most populous country in the world after all.