[programminggeek]

At one point in time an extensive road system is a competitive advantage. At another, it makes less sense.

The same thing happened with Railroads during their heyday. I remember seeing an old railroad map with stops at all these small towns in Nebraska. Now, railroads are almost entirely commercial with very few passenger stops in small towns.

It makes sense that at some point you just don't have the need for so many roads. If more people move to urban or even suburban city centers, things like public transportation, ride sharing, Uber, and even self-driving vehicles start to make a lot of sense and cut down a lot on driving volume and the need for roads.

[angersock]

Well, to be fair, the history of railroads in the US is kinda crackheaded.

[Yhippa]

What do you mean by that?

[angersock]

See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amtrak#Pre-Amtrak

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport_in_t...

Basically, an ongoing waterfall of corruption, regulation, NIMBYism, unfair (arguably) competition from other sectors, and a lot else.

It's not quite accurate to just say "Well, passenger rail is dead" as though it was some natural progression of things--especially when you look at it working in other nations.

[Aloha]

Show me another nation /of our geographical size/ with active well used long distance passenger rail outside of a few highly dense corridors - a hint, it doesn't exist - people will nearly always choose speed. There are very few passenger rail systems with higher than 90% farebox recovery - and none in a country of our geographical size.

That said, I'm in favor of keeping amtrak for strategic reasons (a trained pool of operating talent for national emergencies).

[CamTin]

What kind of emergencies? Ones where we suddenly have to run a lot of passenger trains?

[Aloha]

Ones where for a variety of reasons airspace is closed - WWII would not have been possible for us without railroads - the railroads moves huge numbers of men and materiel cross country faster than aircraft could - railroads also use much less fuel to do it than nearly any method of transport. While I cant think of a tactical situation where we couldn't airlift troops inside the continental US - the skills pool is worthwhile to keep for the 500 million a year is costs the country (a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the rest of the federal government).

[rpcope1]

For starters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...

A lot of the removal of rail capacity has been short-sighted, and often for the gain of automobile manufacturers.

[Aloha]

Don't conflate streetcars and interurban's with all passenger rail.