We only have one month until the petition closes, and there are only about 1700 signatures on it!
DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS WOULD BENEFIT THE AMERICANS ON TUMBLR. THEY COULD ACTUALLY SEE THEIR FRIENDS THAT LIVE ACROSS THE COUNTRY. THIS PLACE IS TOO GODDAMN BIG TO NOT HAVE A SYSTEM LIKE THIS.
AMERICA’S TRAINS ARE DECADES BEHIND OTHER COUNTRIES’ RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY. IT’S AN EMBARRASSMENT AND WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIX IT WITH SOMETHING LIKE THIS.
Signal boosting for my American followers!
YES PLEASE
Right, so I am beyond disappointed to have to write this.
Despite the petition, this is unlikely to happen. I know this because my step-father works for Amtrak, dealing with accidents and the like, and it’s something we’ve discussed before.
It comes down to one simple reason: almost all the track crisscrossing the US is owned by cargo railways. In order to run passenger rail or high-speed rail on that track, it has to be rented.
The initial investment to kickstart high-speed rail travel in the US isn’t there. You see, except for a limited area in the Northeast, Amtrak doesn’t break even, much less make a profit. There used to be a thrice-weekly train from Jacksonville, FL, to NOLA. Since Katrina, it’s been gone, and despite a lot of desire to bring it back, it’s not coming back, for the same basic reason: Amtrak can’t afford to rent the track from CSX to run the train on.
So as awesome as it would be to bring train travel in the US up to the level of Japan and Europe, it’s extremely unlikely to happen. I hate it as much as you do.