as late as the 1960s we used to take the train from Washington state to visit relatives in San Antonio, Tx. It seems like things really fell apart in the 1980s under Reagan’s deregulation.
I found this map of active rail lines as of 2023. Is it wrong?
I was reading a little more about passenger rail in the US and it seems buses have a slightly lower carbon footprint per mile than trains. I was surprised.
They are both a lot less than cars. Forget about planes' footprint.
@HikerGeek @petergleick you can look up carbon and energy use per passenger mile. Cars are obviously worst by far, and bicycles best, but air travel is surpringly competitive on some routes. High speed rail however is not great by that metric. But has advantage that can be fully electrified thus offering diverse energy sources, not just carbon fuels.
Many come down to occupancy, particularly relevant in buses trains. Airlines can't make profit if planes aren't near full so optimized.
Why did a world leader in rail technology abandon that lead?
Robber barons killed off the US railway system by not investing in innovation and by sucking profits out of the business. Vulture capitalism.
Timothy Mellon is too busy funding a fascist movement instead of focusing on his businesses.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/timothy-mellon-top-donor-to-trump-super-pac-used-racial-stereotypes-to-describe-african-americans-in-his-autobiography/2020/06/18/89206c5a-a742-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html
https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/timothy-mellon-and-the-political-peril-of-dynastic-wealth/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Railways
https://www.notus.org/2024-election/timothy-mellon-rfk-trump-donor
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/06/timothy-mellon-texas-border-wall/
A history of how incompetent heirs of dynastic wealth drive businesses into the ground.
Tim Mellon would rather fund an anti-democracy movement than run a business successfully.
https://www.rawstory.com/timothy-mellon/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Railways
https://www.trains.com/ctr/railroad-stories/railfan/guilfords-dave-fink-cast-a-long-shadow/
An out-of-state billionaire who has previously bankrolled attempts to defend controversial immigration laws is responsible for nearly all the donations to Gov. Greg Abbott's $54 million border wall fund.A member of one of America's richest family dynasties, Timothy Mellon, contributed nearly 98% of ...
A nice pair of maps would be China then and now, of their adoption of rail.
@petergleick even with such a smaller land area, I lament the loss of many lines we had in the UK 60 years ago. And even worse the fact many routes were then not protected, and sold off for housing/commercial development - so no chance of reinstating.
The lately we tried HS2 (our second high speed ie > 125 mph line). That's half canned.
This is one area that is AMAZING in china. Travelled on high speed (300/350 kmh) over there multiple times. fast, prompt, clean, brilliant.
Peter Gleick
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