The South had always been less enthusiastic about the railroad industry than the North; its citizens preferred an agrarian living and left the mechanical jobs to men from the Northern states. The railroads existed, they believed, solely to get cotton to the ports.

The scarcity of passenger rail in the American South is the result of a "perfect storm" of historical timing, geography, and political choices. Most Southern cities experienced their primary growth in the post-WWII era (1950s–1970s), a period when American infrastructure shifted heavily toward the interstate highway system and the private automobile. Unlike the "Rust Belt" or Northeast, which grew during the "Streetcar Era" of the late 1800s, Southern cities like Houston, Atlanta, and Charlotte were designed around the "sprawl" model enabled by air conditioning and cars. Furthermore, the South has historically had a more "individualistic" political culture that favored private property and roads over state-funded public works. There were also deeply rooted social factors; in many cases, public transit expansion was historically resisted or "hamstrung" on racist grounds to prevent the connectivity of diverse neighborhoods. Today, while "Sun Belt" cities are booming, the high cost of land and the entrenched car-dependent zoning make building new rail corridors an uphill financial and political battle.