Why can't we have decent passenger rail service in this country?

[TheMightyFavog]

OK, I have the opportunity to go to the NAB convention in Vegas this April. I'm coming into some money, however there is one problem.

I. HATE. FLYING.

I have an intense fear of heights and the last time I was on an airline flight, I was scared shitless when the plane made a low altitude bank on its final approach into Mosinee. I am also a big guy, Those seats don't exactly fit me well.

OK, so I decide to hit up Amtrak to see if I can catch a train.

Turns out that Vegas has no train station. After a 34 hour long ride from Chicago, I'd have to catch a bus in Salt Lake after spending over 34 hours in coach, then catch a bus to Vegas.

I'd pay over 350 bones for the privelege (not including meals)

Meanwhile Orbitz says that I can go to Milwaukee, (Where the Amtrak station that will get me to Chicago is) and catch a four hour Midwest Express flight to Vegas and back again for $242

Why the hell can't we have an affordable TGV-style high speed rail network that connects every major city in the US? WHY???

:grr:

[NMMNG]

1. From what I've been told

The airlines are heavily subsidized. The railways are not. End of story.

[TheMightyFavog]

4. The Airlines should have been told to sink or swim after 9/11.

Every last bobdamned one of them!

[NMMNG]

5. The subsidies were going on long before that

They get pulled out of bankruptcy after bankruptcy by the government. How often do private citizens get that luxury?

[Dave Reynolds]

2. No money for infrastructure,

all extra funds must go to kill brown people in the middle east.

And besides, mass transit is bad for the oil company profits.

[leftofthedial]

3. republicans

[DainBramaged]

6. Republicorruptcons hate mass transit

mass transit means the masses, hence they must associate with them because the cannot own a gigantic SUV or German import that costs more than most houses.

Republicorruptcons hate the masses, except at election time. After that, they love stealing from them.

[madeline_con]

7. I understand it's because the conductors do drugs on the job. n/t

[Hissyspit]

8. Read the "Crisis papers" article on the front DU page - "The View From

Abroad." It addresses this very issue from a comparison of U.S. and European infrastructure.

[obxhead]

9. Drive....

round up 3 friends and rent an SUV, ya know, one of those massive ones.

Seriously though, I hate to fly as well and I don't have the data to back it, but I guarantee it may cost the same as the flights anyway. You can always pull off into the breakdown lane too....

Of course the flight is only a few hours. I hate it, yet I love the near instant change of latitude that comes with a flight. Once that ride is over, I'm always glad I took it. Kinda like a roller-coaster

[TheMightyFavog]

11. My problem is...

I'm afraid of the plane crashing.

[hfojvt]

10. this was on the DU home page

Article by Ernest Partridge, comparing rails in Europe and Japan to the lack thereof in the US. Airports, airlines, roads and interstates heavily subsidize flying and private automobiles. Railroads were heavily subsidized too, back in the day. It used to be a primary means of transportation along with the horse and the stage and walking. Ivan Illich calls the automobile a radical monopoly - one which eliminates all other methods, but it did not in Europe. One advantage they and Japan have on us is a) higher population densities, b) shorter distances, and c) massive rebuilding of their infrastructure after WWII partly subsidized by America.

Even worse, IMO, than you not being able to get to Vegas is that there is no transit service from the exurb where I live to either KCK or KCMO. Utah is ahead of the rest of us on that, but they have an advantage there in that much of their population is on a line (in a valley) from Brigham City to Provo.

[zanne]

12. People want to drive their cars.

I think that's all there is to it.

[Benfea]

13. Because America would be in danger of being more energy efficient...

…and the terrorists would win if we allowed that! You don't want to be with the terrorists, do you? Surely you can't hate America that much!