A map of about every primary passenger railway in the USA for 2016, commuter rail included.
Surely there are more trains lines about than this ?!
Nope. We’re animals. I’ve only trailed by train twice in the U.S., and it was the same line, once DC to Philadelphia, and once DC to NYC for work once I discovered the train was two hours faster than flying and cabbing back into NYC.
I do forget though that you guys fly everywhere and trains might not be practical. I live on an island the size of one of your states !
Fun fact: the busiest railway station in America (Penn Station in New York City) gets fewer passengers than Liverpool Central.
I knew the US had a much less extensive rail infrastructure than us, but bloody hell, the fact that there are ENTIRE STATES that literally don’t have passenger rail is madness.
I’d still love to travel on it some time, mind.
Just imagine the jobs you could create by building a decent railway system!
Behold, the end result of graft and political corruption.
I had no idea most of the US had no regional lines? Like, I live in tiny little MA with one of those clusters of red. Does everybody else have to DRIVE???
yes. we drive. and it’s terrible.
D: This is actually distressing.
to be fair some cities do have good bus systems
but….yeah.
what the shuddering fuck? That’s IT?!
actually we used to have a lot more, but as far as i’m aware i’m pretty sure the car companies bought a lot of railways and then destroyed them to force people to buy cars
To be fair a lot of those states are very spread out and isolated so like, trains running through them wouldn’t be feasible. But in many areas, yes, more trains would be much appreciated.
Source: I have driven cross country, Maine to LA, three times.
Haha, the story of train travel is a hardcore part of US history. We USED to have more train lines than this. There was a time–not so long ago, in fact ask your parents or grandparents–that you could go pretty much anywhere by train. The next town, the next state, the other coast. But the Great Depression hit rail travel and shipping pretty hard, and since then, cars have become so popular that we’ve gradually shifted most of the funds for US transportation infrastructure over to highways. As late as the 1960s, there were regions where you could still get around by train. But it was cheaper, in the days when you could reliably buy gasoline for under $2 per gallon, and you know Americans and our cars, right? And of course political nonsense, internecine quarreling in government about updating regulations, etc.
With fossil fuels–which still are the core of almost all transportation–increasing in cost and the airlines working hard to find new ways to suck, rail companies have been quietly going about re-establishing or re-opening many of these old lines to shipping again. In the past five years, rail shipping has been increasing by leaps and bounds, and we’re even beginning to see businesses actively seeking to locate their factories and warehouses on or near rail lines for easier access to freight options. I keep hoping that increased passenger rail might follow, although passenger rail remains so under-utilized that it’s seen as a very wobbly investment. That’s kind of a vicious circle, because people don’t take Amtrak so much since it runs places you can just as easily get to by car or need to get to much faster by plane, but then Amtrak continues to struggle because not many people are riding the train.
I tell you what, though: there is nothing like the experience of a train trip across the US. It’s one of those experiences that can change your life, and it’s not even that expensive as trips go. Cheaper than a plane ticket, in most cases.
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