america hates trains

>>89942
It's a shame, really. Those streamliners were awesome, if they had continued development of trains who knows where we'd be now...

>>90029
>Improvement to streamliners continued at a breakneck pace throughout the 1930s, with intercity services such as the Milwaukee Road's Hiawatha regularly exceeding 100mph (160 km/h) and long distance services traveling at 70mph (110 km/h) or more. The original fixed-length streamliners were mostly scrapped during World War Two, but not without great influence. In the 1950s, Japan's Odakyu Electric Railway introduced Romancecar service, which was largely patterned after the Zephyr and later Electroliner. It was the Romancecar, operating at 90mph on the Japanese narrow-gauge network, which proved the viability of even-faster standard gauge trains, leading Japan to inaugurate the modern high-speed rail era with the Tokaido Shinkansen in 1964.

Pacific Surfliners also operate at 80 to 90 MPH along parts of the route (mainly in southern Orange County).

> america hates trains

More like amerikans have been brainwashed into thinking that "train = old-fashioned, choochoo train, robber-baron unkewl."

>>91109
This. The Craptastic Age ruined it for the rest of us.

>>90804
and at 0 mph whenever a freight train comes along

>>91112

Hah! Internet high five!

>>89915
>>91109

The root of the problem is that high-speed trains require engineering and control, design and planning farther ahead than the end of your nose - literally and figuratively, something Westerners are incapable of.

The simple inclusion of in-cab signaling which could and should have been used for the last 40 years, still isn't. American freight trains still fundamentally rely on a signaling system designed in the 19th CENTURY.

Giving passenger trains their own right-of-way and trackage? Done for 50 years in Japan and most Euro countries- here, humans are still second-fiddle to hoppers of coal, containers of Chinese toys and Mexican sneakers.

HURR DURR LET'S MAKE MORE HIGHWAYS AND DRIVE BIGGER CARS BECAUSE OIL WILL NEVER RUN OUT OR BE EXPENSIVE AND I'M FAT AND LAZY

>>91109
Yes, it's all about coolness. The maglev research from the Nixon era was abandoned because it wasn't cool. The economic realities of population density wasn't a factor at all.
A high speed train from Chicago to LA makes perfect sense. Why didn't we ever build one? Who wouldn't much rather spend 12 hours on a high speed train over 4 hours on a plane.
And all that human traffic between El Centro and San Diego makes a high speed line darn practical.
Srsly, if these things made economic sense, we would have them. However, the US has about a third the population density of the EU and a tenth that of Japan.
But it's all about cool.

>>91370

Having ridden on a high speed train and flown on a plane, I think the train is the preferable option. You're actually treated like a person on a train. You're cattle suspected of terrorism on an airplane.

passenger trains were shot in the back early on by the flying robber barons who saw more money in the airlines, deal with it.

>>91390

It was cars and the interstate highway system far more than it was air travel. In terms of passengers, cargo and fuel efficiency, rail *still* has flight beat. Hell, even in terms of time, since you don't have to show up hours early at the station to be treated like livestock just to board the train.

But Suburbia (TM) was designed around cars, cars and more cars but not a railcar to be found. And without a good local rail network, high speed long distance rail is sort of pointless.

>>91410

This. I was just in Helsinki, and the reason that works is because they designed around the train and the bus to start with - most houses are either walking distance from suburban rail or have a bus feeding into it. And then, as you say, it's very easy to access the long distance rail.

The big problem with Suburbia(TM) in the US is that if you live there, and you need to get to somewhere in another city that's also in Suburbia(TM) - and bear in mind most business isn't in city centres in the states - then you can drive to the station and get the train, but then you're stuck when you arrive at your destination.

But if you look at the commuter railroads in the East Coast, in California, and a handful of cities elsewhere, slowly passenger service on railroads that feed into the main lines is being developed - in some places with buses feeding them, and in other places the potential for that - so there's hope. But it'll require some tough legislation about freight railroads being penalised for delaying passenger trains, and some tough budgeting decisions. I'm not holding my breath for that.

>>91141
>something Westerners are incapable of.
ah...Europes highspeed rail?

>>91383
>You're actually treated like a person on a train. You're cattle suspected of terrorism on an airplane.
I got a bad feeling that as rail begins to look like an increasingly more viable option we're going to see individuals and concerned groups springing up screaming about terrified scenarios of terrorist attacks on American trains

>>91383

>You're actually treated like a person on a train.

On Amtrak? LOL I don't think so.

>>91425

No, I'll agree. Pretty much all the conductors on the downeaster (Portland, ME to Boston) have a friendly greeting for everyone, and I've had a lot of nice chats on the mornings.

The times I've traveled beyond that line on Amtrak I've met really nice staff too, conductors, station staff, cafe car attendants, everyone - and I had an hour-long discussion about society with a conductor on one of the long distance trains once. And when I went to store my baggage at south station in Boston, they even tagged my two bags together so I only had to pay for one.

So yes, I do feel treated like a human on Amtrak, and they seem to do it in a genuine way - even friendly air hostesses are supposedly trained to put on that act.

Finally, when I was a bit lost in Penn Station and I came to a departing train that the conductor just shut the doors on, he saw me, opened up again and asked if I was going to Albany (as it happened, I wasn't). Now, tell me of a flight that's done that for a late passenger!

>>91426

Out west on the Coast Starlight, it's a different story. You're seen as either a potential complainer or a potential fanboy. Conductors and onboard staff take their jobs too seriously. Dining car and lounge car attendants EXPECT tips. Sleeping car attendants can't be arsed to do anything. The parlour car attendant is always "on break". Everyone takes their job too seriously to care about the needs and wants of passengers. I guess it's because the train is Uncle Pete's little red-headed stepchild between Portland and LA; lateness gets to everybody, and some of them are Union.

Also, on commuter trains, you literally ARE treated like cattle; fit only to be crowded and counted. Bar cars are fun, but the railroads are phasing them out either out of financial concerns or because of changes in law.

It's bad. But I've come to expect it all.

Also, station agents for Amtrak are too business-like; you step up, get your ticket, and leave. No friendliness. No small talk. It's all business; it's "hurry up and buy". And attendants in Seattle's King Street Station and Tacoma, Washington don't like selling upgrades to people for some reason.

>>91429

That saddens me. Sounds very much like British staff, really.

The pretentious crap like wine tasting should have warned me though...

To think generally west coast people are meant to be the more chilled out ones!

>>91370
Bullshit. California, and all of the East Coast and Midwest between Minneapolis, St. Louis, Norfolk and Boston is as dense as Spain and France.

It's just that places like Montana, Wyoming and West Texas are SO big and SO empty that they make the entire rest of the country look empty.