“On a warm summers eve, on a train bound for nowhere…”
The Gambler — Kenny Rogers
I love traveling by train. It’s more “real” than flying. It’s
arguably less scenic, but clouds quickly get boring to watch, and
trains travel through all sorts of areas. I’ve always felt safer
never felt at all crowded (which is, in a way, a problem, in that it
means that the train is virtually unoccupied, which means it’s not
doing so well fiscally.)
There are no security hassles, and I always feel safe on a train.
While, even before 9-11-01 planes made me nervous, now they make me
even more so. Being on rails seriously reduces the risk of accidents,
as does being on the ground. Also, it’s comparatively difficult to
hijack something dependent on rails.
I just wish that trains had gotten a fair shake in this country. Cars
are subsidized by taxpayer money, if by no other way, then by the
maintainence on the highway and local road network. Yet the rail
network is privately owned and maintained. And this not merely raises
costs for rail travel, but slows it down as well, because it has to
wait for the freight trains to go past at various points on a trip.
Looking at this car, it holds 62 seats. the equivalent of more than
12 standard vehicles. It’s probably 40-60 feet long. Much shorter
than 12 cars put bumper to bumper, regardless. I’d be completely
shocked if this thing was less fuel efficient than a car, per person
moved, even if at only one quarter occupancy (fairly standard for
cars, too if you consider the solo commuters driving cars with seating
for 5)
I wonder what the cost for maintaining railroads are compared to
maintaining a single lane of a road of equivalent length. My bets are
on way, way lower. If we diverted a tenth of the budget for roadwork
towards funding the construction of a real rail network, you have to
wonder where we’d be.