Just look to Europe for what a large swath of the US could have if it invested in train infrastructure.
Train good, car bad.
That means I have fixed times, there is no flexibility if I wish to leave earlier or need to stay longer. If I do, I lose the initial charge plus a new 3 times more expensive ticket.
Ticket prices also varies depending on time, which means I have to leave really early and come back 13.5 hours later. And I'm exhausted.
1 out of 8 trains are cancelled or have severe delays, passengers are often rude or are being annoying in someway that makes it difficult to relax.
Trains are not the blessing you think they are.
Edit: Forgot to mention that I am lucky to live 10min away from the station. If I would live where I would like, it would mean 30-40min.
They could be a lot better in a lot of ways. In Europe there is still a huge investment in car infrastructure. And while land use wasnt as bad as in the US its still far from optimal.
I do dislike the selling of these specific tickets. I much prefer a system where you can just take the train.
When I used the ICE in Germany I would never get a reservation, just a general ticket. So if I missed one it didnt matter.
Where I live the national railway carrier lets you refund or exchange your tickets and seat reservations freely up until 15 minutes before the departure time, most ticket types are valid for a day (so you don’t have to buy one for a specific connection) and the prices are, I believe, more or less fixed. The delays are inevitable I guess in most larger networks.
I don’t take the train that often, but my experience is generally pretty good, especially as I’m starting to hate driving.
If I had a working time machine, plus a magic want to make people do what I want, that might be a good argument. I don't have either, though. The world (or at least country) we live in didn't do that, and the mid-20th century was quite a while ago. Now what? Even if funding for rail magically cranked up today, we won't have ride-able lines for a decade, at best. Meanwhile, I've got places to go tomorrow, and rail isn't a realistic option.
> Just look to Europe for what a large swath of the US could have if it invested in train infrastructure.
Out in my part of the country, we don't have anything like Europe's population density. Your "could have had" would be very uneconomical out here.
> Train good, car bad.
Spare us the thought-terminating cliches, especially when they're wrong. Your post isn't convincing, but this parting shot doesn't make it any better. It just makes you sound like you're a propagandist.
Not in heavy traffic.
