At one time, America’s railroads were king. It was once a very pleasant way to travel. You have more legroom than planes or buses, you don’t have to drive or navigate pr pump gas, and the view along the way is unique. But the last time I rode a train was in the 1970s, and I hear that riding a train now is as expensive as a airline flight and slower than driving. There aren’t many passenger trains available anymore. Wendover Productions looks at the reasons why.
Of course, it boils down to money and infrastructure (which costs money). Even freight trains don’t carry as much cargo as they should, but that’s a subject for another day. -via reddit
I did find trains pretty amazing to use in Japan, although a lot of that comes from visitors being able to by a near unlimited rail pass for a week, as otherwise a lot of the same complaints applied. For travel between major cities, high speed trains cost as much if not more than flights and took longer. Also, a quick estimate gives that the Hokkaido Shinkansen expansion recently from Shin-Aomori to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto paid about $10k per foot, and that was for upgrading an existing line, took a decade to build, and has to deal with speed limitations due to freight trains in the Seikan tunnel. If I had to pay normal per trip rates, I would have flown instead of taking the train between cities, only using trains for more local service, comparable to what is done by services other than Amtrack in the US.
We have a winner. 100% correct.
Trains suck in the US because we have alternatives that better fit our needs as a very large, relatively wealthy country.
As Edward notes, the exception is commuter trains to city centers - to which I would add rapid transit (subways & light rail).