Map Enthusiasts

All roads lead to… Chicago?

Why is no one concerned that europe has taken the place of mexico??? Where is mexico now??? How is this not international news?

I once decided to take the train from Denver to Chicago rather than flying. Just to see the country.

One train per day.

Just fucking one train per day.

bUt tHe US Is a yOunGEr coUnTrY! wE haVeN't HaD mUCh TiMe tO caTcHuP.

Yeah but what about the size difference between the two countries?

... Oh wait...

It also doesn't acknowledge that a lot of that is just empty space. The US is ranked 180 of 242 nations in population density.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density

The US rail system has been bastardized since its inception, but this map is basically useless. The UK has 7x the population density as the US.

Goes to show how successful the oil and automobile lobbyists. The US passenger railway network is a fucking flop. When will they finally use electric locomotive instead of the pollution belching diesel electrics.

I mean yes this does show passenger trains but it doesn't actually show all of the passenger trains such as the lines that run in Utah nor south well over a hundred miles carrying passengers for commuter purposes. So there's quite a few lines that are missing on here there's also lines that run up and down the East Coast I know as well and there's other passenger trains and other cities such as salt lake as well.

Apparently the situation with freight is the opposite, where the US networks are efficient compared to Europe (and even China), hence so much stuff is trucked across Europe instead.

As always, take YT videos with grains of salt, but it makes good points:

https://youtu.be/77pIj8kURoY

Meanwhile, other videos suggest that the US's own passenger rail suppliers (like manufacturers/designers) are basically gone because the situation is so bad, hence companies like Amtrak end up importing EU stuff.

And as a Canadian, I'm even envious of the trains in the US. Pretty much the only thing but here we are.

Anecdote time: I was visiting Europe, sitting in Liège and arrived there from Aachen with a train ticket I bought the day before. My next step was Brussels or Ghent but I wasn't decided yet and didn't have a ticket, so I just bought one on the spot for the next train, in an hour. While eating fast food and waiting for that train, I was trying to book a train in Canada next week when I'd return, to go from Montréal to Drummondville. However I was already too late. There was still available tickets but there were over $100 CAD for a trip that would normally cost about $32 CAD if I would have booked it a month in advance. And the next departure was 3 hours later, still overpriced. So, no train in Canada for me, even a week in advance.

In short, in Canada, there's only 5 trains a day between major cities, and you have to book weeks in advance otherwise the prices can triple if you're last minute. And they don't take bikes. And they weigh your bagage.

So I was in Europe, taking trains last minute here and there, while unable to book a train ticket at a reasonable price for the next week in Canada. VIA Rail sucks so much.

Germany used to have more 30 years ago. Scheiß Kohl und Schröder

The US absolutely needs more and better trains. But also, the US has large areas with no population. That's why when you look at electoral maps you need to control population density.

Even with a high quality rail system with support for populated areas of the US the map would still have large gaps and wouldn't be nearly as full as the EU map.

Simply putting two maps side by side and saying "this one bad" isn't great. Yes, it's absolutely bad, but for the exact reasons this map shows.

It’s even worse if you do a high speed train map. The US only has about 150 miles and even the. A chunk doesn’t exceed 60mph even though they call it “high speed”

This map must be at least a few years out of date. I somewhat regularly take a passenger train in FL that isn't shown here.

When I got off the ship I worked on in NYC, I could have taken a plane, train or bus back to California and I opted for the bus because I don't like flying (unless I get to be the pilot) and it was cheaper.

I should have taken the train. Fuuuuuuuck the bus.

And still here in Europe they are not a meaningful alternative to the plane. Taking for example an Amsterdam to Barcelona is an exhausting 12-14h deal (almost 10x as long) and 5x more expensive.

What we need is express trains that go from A to B without stopping anywhere, avoiding city centres and constantly running max speed. If I'm going to Barcelona I don't want to stop in Schiphol, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, and various cities in France. There should just be a dedicated departure just for that (and judging by how many planes go back & forth daily these trains could certainly be filled). This would cut down on that exhausting travel time a lot. But we lack the high-speed network capacity for that. And won't have it for at least 15 years even if they decided to build them now :( So planes it is.

I find it interesting that there's a noticeable difference in rail density between western Europe and former Warsaw pact countries, despite rail being important for Soviet union logistics. In top of that, Russian rail is severely lacking today.

Could it be a rail gauge issue where eastern rail standard caused development to be prohibitively more expensive?

US is grossly wasting fossil fuels on airplane flights. O&G industry is behind this. Their bottom line depends on society being wasteful and inefficient.

Population Density in the United States vs Europe

I mean I'd love more trains in the US, but let's not oversimplify.