Why Trains Suck in America
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as a short, solid walkthrough of why American trains are slow and limited, most notably because freight gets priority.
What it is
Wendover Productions explains why US passenger rail lags behind other countries. It covers freight companies owning most of the track, geography and population density, and the economics of competing with flying.
Recommended by 6 HN commenters across 6 different months, 2017 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Recommends teej · 2017-04 · on “Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal”
High speed passenger rail doesn't work in the US because freight is prioritized over moving people. That's the short version at least. I found this video to be a pretty good walkthrough - [this video]
Recommends sunir · 2017-07 · on “What it’s like to ship yourself overnight on Cabin’s sleep pod bus”
They have trains but all track is owned by freight train providers. Here's a good overview why. [this video]
Recommends trimbo · 2018-04 · on “Want airline food? Take Amtrak”
Wendover Productions has a good video that explains this and many other reasons why trains suck in the US [this video] Spoiler: freight companies own most of the track
Recommends NoNameHaveI · 2019-03 · on “There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway”
This is worth your 8 minutes of time. [this video] I love trains, but the economics of rail travel in the USA can't be overcome. Until robot trains.
Recommends SahAssar · 2020-08 · on “Ask HN: What non-obvious tech/market may take off in the next few years?”
I might be wrong but this seems like a very US-centric idea. For most of the developed world trains fill this need very well, while the US has had problems with their rail network for reasons partially based on geography, partially based on population density, and partially based on their own fault. I think this explains it pretty well: [this video] The solution is not aircraft, the solution is more and better trains. Or perhaps autonomous buses/trucks depending on how far out you look.
Recommends Manuel_D · 2022-07 · on “How far can you go by train in 5h?”
Trains in the US are widely prevalent! It's just that they're used for freight rather than passenger travel. The main driver behind this is the population density of the USA, cities are spaced too far apart to make passenger travel by train viable. Not coincidentally, the only area that does have significant passenger rail networks, the DC - Boston corridor, has population density similar to Western Europe. An interesting video on this topic: [this video]
Cites djsumdog · 2018-05 · on “There's no clear evidence Autopilot saves lives”
> This alone tells me you've never lived in a rural area in the US or relied on Amtrak. ad hominem You know absolutely nothing about me. I have lived in rural areas. I've never relied on Amtrak, but I've used it quite a bit. Most of what I was saying comes from facts out of people like Wenover Productions: [this video] This video doesn't go into the rural -> plane connection; can't find that one at the moment. But he has another video on it. But yes, people do use Amtrak for connecting to major airports from rural areas. > I'm sure it does. Now shift your gaze westwards, to North Dakota, Wyoming, eastern Montana .... I was not addressing any of those areas. At all. You built some argument I wasn'
Cites brownindian · 2019-03 · on “There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway”
Wendover did a video on this a couple years ago. Basically saying why trains suck in America. And the reason is the same: freight gets priority because Amtrak does not own the track, freight companies do. [this video]