As promised here is my educational rant about Why the US Does Not Have Trains (or High-Speed Rail). A Thread by a Civil Engineer but not an expert:

P.S. definitely down for a special episode if anyone is half as interested as me! https://twitter.com/kalysbars/status/1362158010748071937

There are 3 main reasons why we havent seen this infrastructure in the US. Theres many factors that go into these but everything always circles back

1. Political shortsightedness
2. Public vs. Private ownership
3. Population Density

I'll try to give a brief overview of each.

1. Politicians usually obviously care about what they can get done in their term of office. Investing in infrastructure, especially trains and High Speed Rail (HSR) is an investment that reaps benefits beyond a 4-8 year term. And ofc everyone wants to take credit for it

For perspective, even the simplest projects warranted by state or federal funding take at least 2 calendar years to complete between design and construction. But something like a HSR project takes transportation studies, environmental studies, etc. which take months to years each

2. Public vs. Private ownership as far as I know is an ongoing debate because of questions like who will operate and maintain everything? In the US public transportation is heavily subsidized so that fares are reasonable & "affordable" (I could go on a rant about that in itself)

Realistically I can't see it going 100% either way, it will probably be a combination of both. Think of a commercial airport. They may be owned by the government but the actual aircraft/people providing the service are private companies.

I can't imagine the government not

being involved if say, a tunnel collapsed or something.

But then also think of Amtrak. They build and maintain their own rail lines, but they have not been doing well recently. And who do you call if you need money in a pandemic? That's right, the government.

3. This one is the most complex. When it comes to logistics such as optimizing schedules, routes, and user cost (per capita), population density matters. You wanna make sure there's enough demand to cover operation and maintenance costs, regardless of subsidies.

Have you noticed public transit sucks or is nonexistent in rural areas? It is for this reason. Europe and Asia have much higher population densities than the US, and the more ridership, the more efficient/optimal it is to provide the service. It's not cost sustainable to have

5 ppl on a train or a bus, or in the case of a HSR train route, ur not gonna build a multimillion dollar rail line to have 5 ppl board/alight at a single stop. So you need a certain population density in order for it to be seen as "worthwhile."

Lol ok that's all. And I only scratched the surface. I tried to find my course notes from 2 years ago but then I realized how dumb I was for not downloading the free version of the prof's textbook. Literally the most useful book I've ever read. Words + differential equations?

I hope someone appreciates this and I hope I made it easy-ish to understand! If u made it to the end I give you kudos and you will have all my love and affection