Wendover Productions
6 HN recommenders · recommended in 7 months, 2017–2022
8:25 · 6M views · Aug 16, 2016
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.
HN recommends it as a short, solid walkthrough of why American trains are slow and limited, most notably because freight gets priority.
8 comments from Hacker News
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.
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
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
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
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.