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Right? Talking about a major misunderstanding of how the US government made the growth of the railroads possible…
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… it seems like a disclaimer that excuses everybody else for their failing theories
like, no matter how much “government interference” is removed, any problems can be blamed on the tiny amount of government interference that remains
It’s always the Gubmint’s fault that John Galt doesn’t want to build railroads anymore 
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This. Maybe a studio wants my script for a reboot of Hell on Wheels, focused only on the perspective of the workers. I called it Hell on Earth, and…
I love that one, too. Back in the day it was the Montrealer (that’s my preferred way to visit Quebec). A close second is NYC to New London, CT because of the water views, and third is the Coast Starlight (because it takes me a few days to reach the coast and start that journey).
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The railroads in the USA were formed by companies who were given massive subsidies, especially land:
In all, the railroads were granted a total of 131 million acres of federal land or the equivalent of a little more than the states of Wyoming and Colorado combined. This amounts to a little under 7 per cent of the total continental US land mass. Grants were located in 27 states but the largest grants were in Montana (14.7 million acres), California (11.5 million acres), North Dakota (10.6 million acres), Minnesota (9.5 million acres) and Kansas (8.2 million acres).
https://www.genealogyjourney.net/federal-land-grants-to-railroads-checkerboarding/
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Having just taken a pretty extensive work/vacation train trip around the US after years of having to fly for work, I’ll say it’s also easy to see why people prefer the train.
Most people who fly for work can also work in transit on their laptops. IME, that was WAY easier on coach train cars than on coach plane seats.
When we had train delays, we could get off and stretch our legs and get some fresh air instead of sitting on the plane in super-cramped seats.
The biggest thing, though, was the mood and demeanor of the employees. Almost every worker I talked with had been doing the job for 7 years to 30 years. They liked their jobs and seemed to feel valued, because they were really kind to us passengers, even during unexpected 4-hour delays. It was a totally different experience than air travel.
Unionized labor is better for everyone involved. MAYBE if airlines got behind that for the front-facing workers it would be different, but I think it will take more than that.
IMO, if you can afford a longer trip, and can work along the way, the views and nicer interactions make train travel the clear choice. Need to give a shout out to the stretch of rail between Denver and Grand Junction, CO. One of the most beautiful ever.
Climate considerations like lowering your carbon footprint are icing on the cake.
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When the Eurail pass was launched in 1959 it linked 13 countries, many of which had been at war with each other less than 15 years prior.
There’s really no excuse why the United States shouldn’t be a world leader in rail travel, especially given how much potential space we have to lay down rail lines compared to most industrialized countries.
At least we didn’t screw up our chance for a decent rail system as badly as Australia did though. They’re still paying for their predecessors’ stubborn refusal to agree on a single rail gauge in the mid-19th Century.
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Some years back my family took the Amtrak Coast Starlight from LA to Portland. It’s a pretty direct route but it still took something like 32 hours. Not only is it much faster and cheaper to fly, it’s also something like 10 hours faster and way cheaper to get there on a Greyhound bus. A pretty sad statement on the state of our rail system. The only thing that the train had going for it was the nice scenery (the observation car and coastal views were cool) and a little more room to stretch our legs. Maybe part of the solution is a huge carbon tax to makes airplane travel reflect the true cost to the environment because other than environmental factors the planes make way more rational sense for most travelers at current ticket prices.
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Just what everyone wants: to wait for FIVE train crossings at an intersection instead of one!
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By way of analogy: there was a government mandate that required telcos to share copper. Meanwhile, my front yard has been trenched for fiber no less than three times in as many years, because no equivalent mandate exists for fiber optic lines.
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Route 70 parallels the railway (and the Colorado, for that matter) for a good chunk of the route. We drove it visiting my SiL this summer, and passed Amtrak heading south(ish) while we were going north. I was very happy to see the train, and mentally bookmarked it for future trips.
Can you tell I like train travel? 
eta: When time is not a factor, or we are building in decompression time to a vacation, train travel is our top choice where available. I would much rather take a trip on a train, relaxing and watching scenery, than get stressed out getting to and from the airport, standing in many lines for hours, then being stuffed into a flying tin can with next to no space to move. Most of our memorable trips have included trains.
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This may cause a (pun intended) derail, but sincere question: do you feel the same about the US roadways/interstates system? I never hear this (your) argument about roads here, just rail service.
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I used to commute via the amtrak Capitol Corridor train. One day the sign updating us on delays got stuck but was never more apologetic or truthful about its service:
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Same.
What would make it MORE depressing is to have an overlay with PEAK passenger rail, like 1935 or something.
I know I’ve told the story here before, but it took 16 hrs to go from central PA to Chicago the last time I traveled rail (~2000) and the fact that they had posters for a NYC to CHI train from the 1940s (or somewhere in the art deco era) of 12 hours, made me have a sad.
Met some REAL characters on that trip though.
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That’s true. You don’t hear horror stories like you do with airline passenger interactions.
Maybe it’s the threat of being able to actually throw you off the train like an errant Anne Ramsey vs the low probability of defenestrating you on a plane?
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Word. Back in the day people could get from my little city down to Portland Maine every hour on an electric streetcar in about 80 minutes. And it went downtown to downtown. Now there are just a couple bus options, but nothing you could use if you worked in one place and lived in the other bc the schedules are so limited. It takes about an hour, and it doesn’t go downtown so you still need a car or cab on each end.
There’s one cute town the train used to go to and when cars came around they tore up the tracks to pave a parking area, basically shutting down the grain mill that was reliant on the rails for bringing grain in from the northern part of the state. I only know this one because that mill recently reopened and is supporting a burgeoning Maine grain farming scene.
The automotive industry really screwed this country in so many ways.
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