• red [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    How useful would a rail network like that be in the US? I live in the UK where even our admittedly shit one is a godsend, but the US is fucking massive. Would it make sense to have a coast-to-coast railway?

    • Owl [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      A good rail network would be a huge asset to almost everyone in the US, but it wouldn't look much like the networks you see on visionary maps like this. Mostly it'd be even more clustered around the east and west coasts, New York, California, and Chicago, with fewer coast to coast passenger lines, because the US's population is highly concentrated in those places. The center of the country would benefit more from a better freight rail network, so they can more efficiently/greenly export crops and import stuff from the ports.

    • SirLotsaLocks [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      if anything it would be better, I'm not a trainologist but I imagine having a reliable and simple 8 hour trip to seattle from dc would be nice. I also feel like it would be cheaper per trip than a airplane. But again I'm not an expert on trainonomics.

      • red [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        That's true - trains are cheaper. The benefit of them I guess is that flying has like 2-3hrs of faffing before and after the flight, but trains just sort of run.

        On another note, if wanting to half travel time in the UK makes me a trainologist then I am ready for that mad puss