Yea, that is true. I mean having more robust regional routes covering smaller sections would be cool but don’t expect an extensive web of trains going around the Rockies or Wyoming.
I’d love to see something reasonable to cover the empire builder line- I just want to get home to Seattle from Chicago for the holidays in under $100 round trip :/ otherwise it’s Alaska Airlines for me.
But Europe actually has a slightly larger land area than the united states? aproximately 3.9 million square miles as opposed to aproximately 3.5 million square miles.
That 3.9M figure includes European Russia and the Nordic countries, which are largely excluded from the map image to make the difference more glaring. Not as much rail connectivity in the north. But even with that, Europe is twice as densely populated as the USA. If you look only at the EU, it is 3x as densely populated.
It’s not the only reason for the difference, but it’s a big one.
Still excludes much of Russia to the Urals (which is in the 3.9M figure).
But to be clear, I’m not arguing that there’s a view which will make the US map look good by comparison. There are quite a few reasons why the US situation sucks.
Part of it is how the population is distributed. Here’s a view of population density that helps tell that story:
Compared with Europe his country has A LOT of empty space. Large tracts of agricultural land and large tracts of marginal to desolate land.
Add to that the construction and funding of the railroads here. It was all owned by private enterprises focused on freight. If the freight dried up on a route there was no incentive to invest in maintenance. Many railways started fading right around the same time that passenger demand was drying up due to the construction of the interstate highway system and then later due to deregulation of the airlines. Mail started moving by plane and by truck, so that guaranteed income stream dried up too. When the railroads were consolidating and eliminating passenger routes to save money the government formed Amtrak to try and save a few routes. Outside of the northeast it has generally been a curiosity, an experience, more than a competitive transportation option. And most Americans are fine with that. They prefer to roll around in a pickup truck on their own.
Yeah but what about the size difference between the two countries?
… Oh wait…
…the density is the flex here, not the size of the country. If you put the US rail on your map, you’d think Europeans hate trains.
Yea, that is true. I mean having more robust regional routes covering smaller sections would be cool but don’t expect an extensive web of trains going around the Rockies or Wyoming.
I’d love to see something reasonable to cover the empire builder line- I just want to get home to Seattle from Chicago for the holidays in under $100 round trip :/ otherwise it’s Alaska Airlines for me.
But Europe actually has a slightly larger land area than the united states? aproximately 3.9 million square miles as opposed to aproximately 3.5 million square miles.
Isn’t europe over 700M people though? We so often get caught up in the EU population.
That 3.9M figure includes European Russia and the Nordic countries, which are largely excluded from the map image to make the difference more glaring. Not as much rail connectivity in the north. But even with that, Europe is twice as densely populated as the USA. If you look only at the EU, it is 3x as densely populated.
It’s not the only reason for the difference, but it’s a big one.
Honestly still pretty bad (older map) Especially considering this is just high speed lines.
Still excludes much of Russia to the Urals (which is in the 3.9M figure).
But to be clear, I’m not arguing that there’s a view which will make the US map look good by comparison. There are quite a few reasons why the US situation sucks.
Part of it is how the population is distributed. Here’s a view of population density that helps tell that story:
Compared with Europe his country has A LOT of empty space. Large tracts of agricultural land and large tracts of marginal to desolate land.
Add to that the construction and funding of the railroads here. It was all owned by private enterprises focused on freight. If the freight dried up on a route there was no incentive to invest in maintenance. Many railways started fading right around the same time that passenger demand was drying up due to the construction of the interstate highway system and then later due to deregulation of the airlines. Mail started moving by plane and by truck, so that guaranteed income stream dried up too. When the railroads were consolidating and eliminating passenger routes to save money the government formed Amtrak to try and save a few routes. Outside of the northeast it has generally been a curiosity, an experience, more than a competitive transportation option. And most Americans are fine with that. They prefer to roll around in a pickup truck on their own.