the us is a freight rail country. passenger rails doubling up on the same rails as freight is what offsets the costs, and helps get cities to pay for maintenence on the rail lines that otherwise just pass *through* them with freight. shift to hsr, which requires dedicated rail lines, suddenly the cities aren't managing the freight lines. it becomes more expensive, and more cost prohibitive to stop along the way, so fewer freight stops are made as well. meaning trucking has to increase because now a lot of places need someone to truck their freight from two towns over where the rail stops. that's just the start. and it doesn't even address the fact that we are not a cross-state commuter country. trains within cities carrying passengers get used every day. passenger trains from fort worth to okc already exists, and they're hardly ever used. making the travel time 50% faster isn't gonna fix that. it'll never compete with the fact that i can just hop in my car and drive for 3 hours to get there, spending 15 bucks, and still being able to drive wherever i want when i get there and not have to pay for uber. people who come up with these plans have never been to the places they want high speed rail to go to. the only one on these that makes sense is the houston, no, orlando pipeline because of disneyworld. but of course then it shuts down when there's a hurricane. like last week. and this week. when a freight line shuts down, only a small number of companies have to redirect things, and guess what, it's not a huge problem if it takes twice as long to arrive due to detour because it's freight, not living things. can't do that with passengers. i actually ride passenger rail on the regular, and these suggestions are so flawed, no one who rides it would think it up. buncha new yorkers going everywhere on taxis trying to tell the rest of the country how to exist.
United States