The initial post is great, and the comments just add a lot of depth.
My take on the commentary is don't expect a huge improvement in Passenger Train service in the US soon.
- People use Japan and Europe as examples of great train service, but the US is a lot more spread out.
- It seems that freight trains also cause the passenger lines to be delayed.
- As well as the poor service on passenger trains with prices and speeds that are just not competitive.
- There has been a huge increase in freight train traffic that has caused an increase in money spent to improve rail lines.
- For so long not enough money was spent on rail lines.
Growing up I had a train board with a lot of HO trains, and my parents and I took a lot of train trips. Unfortunately with my daughter the cost has not made sense, so we have not taken many trips. The one very memorable trip was up to Ventura, when the train started moving and she was still on the train (we had already gotten off). Luckily she got off. We did get a free ticket after complaining, but it still leaves a bad taste.
My Opinion:
- More money needs to be spent upgrading rails, including making many of them 2 lines.
- This will help the environment and traffic, since rails are more efficient over longer distances than trucks.
- The reason for the huge growth in trucks were railroads for many years did not take care of their customers offering them the level service they needed, so people went with a more flexible, slightly higher cost solution.
