Why don t Americans use trains?

There are many reasons why Americans don't ride the rails as often as their European cousins. Most obviously, America is bigger than most European countries. Outside the northeast corridor, the central Texas megalopolis, California and the eastern Midwest, density is sometimes too low to support intercity train travel.



People Also Ask

The great distances between major cities in the USA favor flying. Planes travel at speeds more than 500 miles an hour while most trains travel at speeds never exceeding 80 miles an hour. At some point upwards of a 600 mile trip, traveling by train starts adding entire days to a person's travel plans.

MORE DETAILS

Passenger trains were expensive to operate. They required more crew than a freight train, the passenger stations were expensive to heat, light, maintain and occupied prime real estate that was assessed property taxes.

MORE DETAILS

Rail in the US is dominated by freight movements, the passenger sector is very much and afterthought and doesn't receive much investment. As a result their lines are slow, dominated by freight, and their rolling stock is old and low tech. Japan, in contrast, has one of the best and most modern railways in the world.

MORE DETAILS

For decades now, passenger rail use has been steadily declining in the US, and although the country is criss-crossed with extensive railway tracks, the majority of these are used to carry freight, not passengers.

MORE DETAILS

CLIMATEWIRE | The first U.S.-made high-speed bullet trains will start running as early as 2024 between Boston, New York and Washington, with the promise of cutting transportation emissions by attracting new rail passengers who now drive or fly.

MORE DETAILS

American railways were also built on a wider gauge (the distance between the rails), which allows for larger and heavier trains. As a result, American freight railways are much more efficient than their European counterparts, carrying almost three times as much cargo per mile of track.

MORE DETAILS

The continuous lack of investment and failure to modernize by the state-owned railways happened, in part, as the proliferation of roads, bus companies, and air routes burgeoned, putting all but an end to long-distance rail passenger traffic in Mexico.

MORE DETAILS

The Great Depression of the 1930s forced some railroad companies into bankruptcy, creating hundreds of miles of disowned and subsequently abandoned railway properties; other railroad companies found incentive to merge or reorganize, during which excess or redundant rights-of-way were abandoned.

MORE DETAILS

The infrastructure that was transferred to Amtrak's management was also aging rapidly and required repairs. However, perhaps the biggest issue of all was that under the Rail Passenger Service Act, Amtrak did not gain ownership of the majority of the railroad tracks that their trains ran on.

MORE DETAILS

The numerous freight and passenger trains coursing through Chicago define the city as the nation's railroad hub.

MORE DETAILS

The horn alerts people that a train is approaching a railroad crossing. It can also be used to warn animals or trespassers in our right-of-way along a section of track. Many people don't realize that federal and state regulations require us to sound the horn whenever we approach any crossing.

MORE DETAILS

While trains are primarily used today in the U.S. as a means of commuting to and from work, luxury train travel experiences are still in motion on trains like America's Trains Southern Comfort line, featuring lavish sleeping cars, and the Napa Valley Wine Train offering food-and-wine day experiences.

MORE DETAILS

Why are American train platforms so low? Largely to provide clearance to freight cars, which can often be over-wide. If you're at a “passenger train only” facility like Penn Station in New York, then the platforms are at the same level as the train exits.

MORE DETAILS

America's freight railroads are almost entirely privately owned and operated. Unlike trucks and barges, freight railroads operate overwhelmingly on infrastructure they own, build, maintain and pay for themselves.

MORE DETAILS

The Federal Railroad Administration does not currently set any limits on train lengths – and also doesn't regularly track train lengths or their associated risks. That has allowed freight railroad companies to occasionally operate trains up to 8 kilometres (5 miles) long.

MORE DETAILS