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‘The time is right’ for US to catch up on high-speed rail, says British Amtrak exec
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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Is it the case that the US fundamentally can’t do what, say, Spain and South Korea and Algeria have been able to, and that they have been able to do with, say, NASA, the military and numerous private corporate logistics systems, or just that they haven’t done it yet?
We used to have a thriving rail and trolley system in the US; in most major cities especially. The automakers destroyed it. When they were caught, they got a slap-on-the-wrist fine and the nation went with the automaker’s suggestion of building the highway system up.
So yes, there is a fundamental reason we can’t. It’s the auto makers and the politicians they own.
The answer is slightly more complicated than that.
Part of the problem is that a lot of mass transit was built in the USA by private companies to make a profit. This went from trolley lines in small cities to large parts of the NYC Subway and almost all commuter and interciry rail.
Most mass transit systems ended up being built as loss leaders to develop suburban property. After the property was developed, the incentive to maintain mass transit dropped. Along with that, rail companies generally hated passenger service and preferred freight instead.
It eventually got to the point where the private company would collapse and there was little political will to maintain service. There was some lobbying done by auto companies, but a lot of it came from cities and states too cheap to make transit a public good with public funding.
Just as side note... there was to that decision then just automakers btw.
Feds wants proper national high way system for defense purposes also. Automakers deff took that idea to turned into whatever this dystopian shit is while killing off any competition.