Seriously, though, far too many Americans still tie their identity to their vehicle. The stupid notion of rugged American individualism has really held the country back.
There are plenty of other things, but I’m just pointing out this one.
I can buy not letting you have much spontaneity if your country/area doesn’t have an extensive network.
But trains are way cheaper than cars, and on almost every case, faster.
I commute to work by taking the train from one city to another, and then I take the metro to get to the office. I pay 10€/mo for this. It still takes me the same time it would take by car, without accounting for parking and taking the car out of the garage and any traffic at all.
I can also take high speed rail to go on vacation to almost anywhere, even in other countries. But just staying within my country, I can pay ~30€ to get to somewhere ~600km away, in just 3h.
I can also get a 30€/mo card, which allows me to take almost any train in the whole country during that month, with the only exception of most high speed lines.
I wish trains were viable, but they keep shooting themselves in the foot by not competing for markets they are good at (like people without IDs, or people with large amounts of fragile cargo)
But, but, but, trains are communism!
Seriously, though, far too many Americans still tie their identity to their vehicle. The stupid notion of rugged American individualism has really held the country back.
There are plenty of other things, but I’m just pointing out this one.
that’s probably not helped by trains being more expensive and slower than cars or planes, and not even letting you have any spontaneity in your trips.
More expensive and slower?
I can buy not letting you have much spontaneity if your country/area doesn’t have an extensive network.
But trains are way cheaper than cars, and on almost every case, faster.
I commute to work by taking the train from one city to another, and then I take the metro to get to the office. I pay 10€/mo for this. It still takes me the same time it would take by car, without accounting for parking and taking the car out of the garage and any traffic at all.
I can also take high speed rail to go on vacation to almost anywhere, even in other countries. But just staying within my country, I can pay ~30€ to get to somewhere ~600km away, in just 3h.
I can also get a 30€/mo card, which allows me to take almost any train in the whole country during that month, with the only exception of most high speed lines.
Amtrak, it sucks everywhere except the far east of the US.
I’m very much pro-train, but these are truths.
I wish trains were viable, but they keep shooting themselves in the foot by not competing for markets they are good at (like people without IDs, or people with large amounts of fragile cargo)