Why are train tickets so expensive?

[renke]

@Konservenknilch

Like, why did you get rid of all your trams?

and, to be fair, the renaissance of tram systems is a new(ish) development. for decades the “autofreundliche Stadt” was the pinnacle of city planning in Europe

[fnordius]

@mcv

If instead to see public transport as vital infrastructure where the main gain is the mobility of the people, rather than mere profit, then it might be worth a financial loss to the community. Public transport is even good for people who don’t use it, because more people in public transport means less people in cars filling up the roads with traffic jams.

This is actually a stated goal of the Munich public transportation policy, as the city has far too many people to provide parking, and the roads are often congested. In this, it has been so successful that the underground lines can be packed during rush hour. It’s so successful that the city is looking at where to dig more tunnels. Visitors to Munich also are encouraged to park on the outskirts and take the LCR and subway lines. And it is helping to cut down on pollution as well. What is there not to like?

[fnordius]

@enso

Yes. Freight gets priority. If a passenger train is behind schedule and will block a freight train’s schedule, the passenger train can sit idle on the track and wait until things clear.

This is what is seriously messed up with the USA’s rail system, that all the tracks are in private hands. It is akin to having the highways owned by trucking companies that can tell the buses that they have to make way.

[mcv]

@enso

Freight gets priority. If a passenger train is behind schedule and will block a freight train’s schedule, the passenger train can sit idle on the track and wait until things clear.

That seems completely backwards. Coal doesn’t care if it’s an hour late. Passengers get pissed if the train is standing still for 5 minutes. This sounds like the US doesn’t expect or want people to use the train at all.

[mcv]

@renke

and, to be fair, the renaissance of tram systems is a new(ish) development. for decades the “autofreundliche Stadt” was the pinnacle of city planning in Europe

Trams have never been gone from Amsterdam, though the metro rail system didn’t start until the late 1970s or 1980s.

And in the early 1970s, it was already clear that the car-friendly city was not going to work. Netherland had big protests against the way cars were taking over all public space. They wanted streets for kids to play on, safe biking routes, etc. That’s a big part of how Netherland became such a bike-friendly country: resistance against the take-over by cars, and the realization that it would be terrible if everybody would try to do everything by car.

[renke]

@mcv

And in the early 1970s, it was already clear that the car-friendly city was not going to work. Netherland had big protests against the way cars were taking over all public space.

Not only in the Netherlands, this was an European-wide movement. But the car proponents were tenacious and hard to overcome - while France build the first new tram system (Nantes, 1985) the last rearguard actions in Germany were successful (the trams in Kiel and Wuppertal were demolished in <drumroll> 1985).

[fnordius]

It is, but the main reason is because the company moving the freight owns the tracks, and merely tolerates Amtrak running on its tracks.

[enso]

The US government doesn’t own the train tracks. The freight lines do.

[sme]

Come to Toronto. We have trams!