Quote:
Originally Posted by AriM3G80
I know there are a lot of things average American doesn't know, not just understand, but seeing where Europe is together with Asian countries in general, regarding their train infrastructure, we can't help but think US is either unwilling or unable to keep up with the rest of the world, and it's just shame. But we're okay building highways and spending half of our lives stuck in traffic cursing.
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Understood, so here are just a few things to ponder .........
1) there is no money in hauling people, freight yes, people no.
2) European and Asian countries heavily subsidize their rail passenger network
3) we blew the hell out of the European continent in 2 world wars, so infrastructure is basically new since '45
4) Amtraks Fed subsidy is merely a billion dollars a year, peanuts.
5) Amtrak was created 51 years ago under the Nixon Admin and it was done so with a projection to fail and 'disappear', 51 years later it's the can that continues to get kicked down the road.......
I could go on and on but we should create another thread for this one is about the joys of riding trains in Europe ! My European rail travel has been limited to just the UK, but I enjoyed it. As for N America, I've ridden everything between Fairbanks , Alaska and Miami, Florida