How California Failed in Bullet Trains - High Speed Rail

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  • Опубліковано 24 гру 2024
  • Why the wealthiest country in the world the United States America hasn’t adopted or even developing a high-speed rail system?
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 578

  • @nicolasblume1046
    @nicolasblume1046 4 роки тому +109

    The shinkansen is much faster than 200km/h! Nowadays it can reach up to 320km/h.
    200km/h was only the beginning in the 60s

    • @harshilpatel684
      @harshilpatel684 4 роки тому

      200kph or 125mph in the UK is the top speed of conventional rail. We have several lines at that speed but only 1 true high speed line which runs at 300kph

    • @sowon5030
      @sowon5030 3 роки тому +2

      yeap that's what makes me think many facts in this video are very vague, if not completely wrong.

    • @jonasbijlsma9943
      @jonasbijlsma9943 3 роки тому +1

      He said they reached that speed ''60 years ago'' to put into perspective how far behind the US is. It makes sense you just gotta pay close attention.

    • @neutrino78x
      @neutrino78x 3 роки тому

      Nicolas, that's still way too slow for North America, South America and Australia.
      Even San Francisco and Los Angeles -- in the same state within the United States -- are 380 miles apart. At 200 miles per hour, it would take almost two hours. That's IF you could actually average 200 mph, which you couldn't, because traveling through the San Francisco Bay Area and the City and County of Los Angeles would have to be done at a lower speed.
      Whereas a jet aircraft covers this distance in only one hour.
      The people of California -- not me, I am proud that I voted against it -- voted in favor of a "high speed" train to go this distance, and it has become a major boondoggle. Just the Initial Operating Segment between Merced and Bakersfield -- a stupid area to build HSR in btw because there are all kinds of little towns in between where you have to go slower, as opposed to the other route, along I-5, where there are no towns, and the road is straighter, and has a wide median where you could build railroad tracks -- cost like 20 billion USD. Initially, we voted on a total cost of 30 billion with 10 billion from the taxpayer and 20 billion from private investment. The private investment never came because of the stupid route choice and they're now saying 100 billion to build the whole thing between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the project has run out of money, so it's basically a dead project now.
      But it was a waste of time from Day 1, because the private sector has it covered and they do it very, very well. A wheel on rail train, even in the best scenario with the best route, would take almost twice as long, and with the route they chose, it would take almost three times as long (2 hrs 40 minutes) as a plane.
      And these are relatively close cities. The nearest other such pair would be Houston and Dallas....over 1000 miles away (five hours in a TGV, two hours in a plane), or the Seattle to Vancouver BC (Vancouver BC is in Canada, near the border) area, which is about 800 miles away (about four hours in a TGV, two hours in a plane).
      Just in general, HSR is not worth it in the Americas (north and south) and Australia. This isn't an example of "America sucks" or "Americas are stupid", it's just geography. Canada and Australia are the same. Both rich countries, neither uses HSR, for the same reason. Cities are simply too far apart.

  • @cocojamboyeah
    @cocojamboyeah 5 років тому +179

    Beijing-Shanghai train is NOT Maglev. It's train with wheels riding on tracks.

    • @whollibaugh
      @whollibaugh 4 роки тому +37

      Maglev in shanghai is from the airport to someplace downtown. A super short strech

    • @thermalstoragesystemfromtr9513
      @thermalstoragesystemfromtr9513 4 роки тому +2

      It's long yang Station,near Pudding Expo Center.

    • @サッティクサルカル
      @サッティクサルカル 4 роки тому

      It's not it's actually a maglev levitating on the track

    • @philchinamusical
      @philchinamusical 4 роки тому +1

      @@whollibaugh Not exactly downtown by China standards. An outskirt if downtown.

    • @philchinamusical
      @philchinamusical 4 роки тому +1

      Another factor is China governments does not only control the lands, but also all domestic banks. So they can always secure huge loans with low interests.

  • @JC-bl9bo
    @JC-bl9bo 4 роки тому +232

    Legal bribery/lobbying, boy are those words true. So true and so sad.

    • @mab7727
      @mab7727 4 роки тому +6

      sadly even those who know it mostly avoid using it.

    • @ThePro-qn6wr
      @ThePro-qn6wr 4 роки тому +2

      This is why the Resource War should start soon.
      So it will prevent The Middle East from Supplying Murican War Machine.
      (Sad Fallout Noises)

    • @BoleDaPole
      @BoleDaPole 3 роки тому +3

      Its lobbying the government, how else will u convince a congressmen to do something you want or read a proposed bill you wrote up?

    • @mab7727
      @mab7727 3 роки тому +1

      @@BoleDaPole aka bribery.

    • @coderdbd
      @coderdbd 3 роки тому

      Socialists governments are corrupt. Capitalist governents aren't, because corruption there is legal and it's called "lobbying".

  • @maurizioboggian6033
    @maurizioboggian6033 4 роки тому +27

    In Italy there are 2 company they menage high speed train. 1 is pubblic (trenitalia, his train is Frecciarossa) the other is private, his train is Italo. The speed is around 250/300 km/H depends on distance and terrain. Italy have many mountains and many little town with many old and ancient buildings and monument everywhere, and is impossible build a strait line, but we have a high speed train!!

    • @sharronenriquez7498
      @sharronenriquez7498 3 роки тому +2

      Exactly!!!

    • @neutrino78x
      @neutrino78x 3 роки тому

      cities are much closer together. Your whole country is only about 800 miles (1287 km) long.
      Rome to Naples is only 139 miles (223 km). That's half the distance between typical American, Canadian or Australian cities.
      For example San Francisco to Los Angeles is 380 miles (611 km).
      A 160 mph (257 km/hr) train seems a lot faster when it only has to go 139 miles (223 km). If it has to go 380 miles (611 km) that's quite different.
      Aviation is the best solution here (the Americas and Australia).

    • @maurizioboggian6033
      @maurizioboggian6033 3 роки тому

      @@neutrino78x ma anca no!!
      Rome to Milan (the 2 big city in Italy) are 480 km (304 mi) apart (by train) and you can make the trip in less than 3 hours!! The train stop at Bologna and Florence to, and after Rome, go to Naples to! And you can take the train in the city center and get off in the center of the other, without having to waste time to go to the airport, do the check in, security checks, luggage, and on arrival, take another means to go downtown! And if you add everything up, if the movements are under 600 km, the train certainly beats the plane, as well as being cleaner!

    • @neutrino78x
      @neutrino78x 3 роки тому

      @@maurizioboggian6033 ok rome to milan is a one hour flight.
      Surely most people make that trip by flying rather than waste three hours of their life on the train.
      Can you blame the Americans for not wanting to waste money in that way? We have 400 miles between cities with nothing (of note) in between. It's just not viable here.

  • @brucehain
    @brucehain 5 років тому +149

    The assertion that legalized bribery is the current state of affairs in the United States couldn't be truer. LARGE SCALE. But I have to say the reason passenger rail is such a sh*tshow in the US is because the railroads (now the "freight carriers") want it that way. Totally new lines are not needed in many places to provide the most direct access to the most population at relatively high speeds. Upgrading and abbreviating existing lines in many cases could open up MANY populous towns in decline for several decades for lack of rail service, with resulting upscale residential development gauged to people wanting the work environment of the big city while still enjoying small town American life, reached within an hour or so. On the other hand, in some places new construction is needed. I have done a detailed alignment for a new Pennsylvania Railroad, New York-Chicago (and NY-St. Louis) - this being one route where a completely new line is needed to achieve a high level of speediness. It is surprisingly unintrusive with regard to residential property (no dwellings I can think of actually, tho probably a few) and would provide incentives otherwise for the commercial/public stuff that would be traversed, with stations-as-bribes to get the locals on board with the program. I don't think the line to Urumqi is a politically motivated project. It is of vital importance as the shortest, fastest route to Moscow, and thereby Europe and London - a lot of intervening construction needs to be done other than in China to achieve that. Best line: "And that would be Coal, Crude Oil and Timber"

    • @Neville60001
      @Neville60001 5 років тому +1

      As I said elsewhere, if a maglev system similar to the old Hot Wheel Hot Lines train set (ua-cam.com/video/Ixu-aL5mXps/v-deo.html) was proposed to the U.S. and Canadian governments and to U.S. and Canadian freight companies, the construction of HSR lines would be acted upon with such speed you'd think there was a war going on and we needed to get resources moving quickly.

    • @selfReferencinDox
      @selfReferencinDox 5 років тому

      Curious Reason doesn't know what lobbying is. And, in spite of having an accent, doesn't seem to be aware of the fact that lobbying is legal in most countries

    • @BattleshipOrion
      @BattleshipOrion 4 роки тому

      It's nothing to do with the Class 1 roads. Class 1 roads dont have no political say (unless it's yellow, & has had political input since before the civil war (Union Pacific)), to put this into simple terms, The US is not a vacation site no more. We build factories in our crop land, cut trees to replace the farmland, and put the trees where swamps use to be. We cant go and vacation to New York, unless we got money coming out our behind, nor LA, or any other big tourist city. The US Rail-Freight network is part of what brings small towns money through land buyouts, & factories the cars to put product into or get product out of. We prioritize BNSF, CSX, NS & the Canadian roads over Amtrak for one reason, without constant freight trains, we will enter an economic crisis, making the Empire Builder, Lake Shore Limited or South West Chief run under wires, & go at the speed of the slowest airliners is not in my pockets best interest. I support small HSR routes , like Houston to Dallas, or DC to Boston more than a DC to Chicago line. Non-train people may not see it, but if we were to start electrifying Chicago to Portland (the Empire Builder), the reroutes would destroy routs that were not made to handle that traffic, railyards, & interchanges between railroads would be filled in a day, not the best case scenario. Upgrading lines in small population centers would disrupt everything (ive seen it happen twice). Y'all small minded people seem to think that truck drivers, airplane pilots, & ship captains will save your amazon order, oh boy...i'll leave that for the intermodal boys to talk that one.

    • @brucehain
      @brucehain 4 роки тому

      @@BattleshipOrion Class I's have ENOUGH political say to allow their gutting and laying lame of their own properties without legal consequences, mile long pile-ups with HAZMATS, etc. I see the damn wires as being replaced by linear - there are patents around but RR's prefer square wheels. I wouldn't say the Texas Central thing is a viable route choice - they ruled that out early on (with the willing compilicty of the fused-at-the-hip FRA) by using their 40' wall ploy in case of cornfield meet - really it's extortion. It has been used in CA and elsewhere to rule out the best route having the most passenger draw: See UP Line in the Central Valley. I have written something on the Texas Central business - with profuse illistrations - rail-nyc-access.com/rail-texas

    • @BattleshipOrion
      @BattleshipOrion 4 роки тому

      @@brucehain Im not here to debate the fools game of politics, im just saying that the US is to bound to the confines of "Made in the USA" as some say, The Texas line (which will host the Japanese Shinkansen) has been overruled by parties in Texas, Japan, & the White House. The 40' wall of ploys is the US Highway Administration's game. If your diehard highspeed, answer this, 50,000 trucks, or 1 train? Pipelines, or "HAZMAT" trains? People, or money? Or even better for those growin' our food, thousands of dollars in hiring drivers, or a trip to the Co-Op? It aint a matter of "HSR" it's a matter of how many people are you willing to sacrifice with no compensation, vs use what we got & be grateful. We got the roadbed, BNSF is actively testing a battery powered locomotive, what more do we want? Soon these EPA tier 4 regulations will mean nothing with battery powered locomotives. Wires & electrical through tornado alley, which sees multiple EF-2 and up tornadoes a year, will short entire divisions of railroad infrastructure. Politics will only screw millions of people over, why go about destroying peoples lively hoods, by making them pay for infrastructure that cant handle the US's variety of weather patterns, & put in leisure for the wealthy. We got battery, we use it. No wires, third rail, or anything that will cause more harm than good, lets just go mine out some copper, & lithium, & make super-sized lithium-ion batteries, & have a diesel locomotive behind to provide backup power. & to recharge that battery.

  • @derradfahrer5029
    @derradfahrer5029 4 роки тому +5

    To be fair, High-Speed-Trains in Germany are not really faster then then the amtrak acela in the north east corridor.
    Sure, there are some sections of purpose build high speed track, where trains can go as fast as 320km/h. But for long distance, trains are quite slow (compared to china)
    Hamburg to Munich takes about 6h for a distance of roughly 800km, which give an avarage speed of "only" 130km/h.

  • @pablol5472
    @pablol5472 3 роки тому +2

    I believe you would agree that CA, TX, FL and the NE/MW have sufficient density for HSR. NE/MW can, in addition, support a web-like network rather than point to point and can team up with Canada. Unlike Europe, we only need two culturally similar countries to agree. And taxation can curb US car and plane culture, for a very good reason: environment.
    The REAL reason for lack of passenger trains outside of so called flyover country is .... lobbying.

  • @nicolasblume1046
    @nicolasblume1046 4 роки тому +7

    There is NO Maglev in Shanghai!
    The only highspeed Maglev line is the short line between Shanghai and its airport.
    All other highspeed lines are regular train lines with steel tracks and steel wheels

    • @paullangford8179
      @paullangford8179 4 роки тому +1

      The problem with the Shanghai maglev is that it doesn't go to the city ventre. It takes longer to go to the maglev terminal than it does to drive to the airport.

  • @cemsengul16
    @cemsengul16 5 років тому +175

    I would love to be able to travel to all the states really fast and affordably. I think we need a high speed rail connecting all the states.

    • @Neville60001
      @Neville60001 5 років тому +6

      Exactly.

    • @akattau
      @akattau 5 років тому +6

      And the politicians will add xx% tax to you.

    • @vicc4229
      @vicc4229 5 років тому +6

      america need to bring in the chinese to build high speed trains systems. No hope right now.

    • @AdamSmith-gs2dv
      @AdamSmith-gs2dv 4 роки тому +17

      @@Neville60001 There is no HSR train between Lisbon and Moscow so why are you asking for one to connect LA and NYC which is an almost identical distance? I swear people seem to forget how massive the USA is and how tiny main land Europe is without Russia

    • @shinkizawa3613
      @shinkizawa3613 4 роки тому +11

      You know China did easily because they had a higher population meaning cities were close to each other

  • @moinulf4503
    @moinulf4503 4 роки тому +17

    2:40
    Why is your europe map from the last century? The GDR (German democrat Republic) doesn't exist since 30 years (East and west Germany United in 1990)
    Edit: Yoguslavia and Czechoslovakia also no longer exist

  • @paulapana6241
    @paulapana6241 3 роки тому +10

    This channel is missed out by lots of people! You deserve a million subscribers!

  • @78Dipar
    @78Dipar 4 роки тому +13

    High speed rail netwoks has developed in Japan, Europe and China because there was a strong political will to do so, it's obvoulsly not the case in the US.
    For distances up to 1.000 miles, and from city center to city center, high speed train is faster than plane thanks to no commuting time to airports. And of course, it's also more energy effective...

    • @neutrino78x
      @neutrino78x 3 роки тому

      1000 miles???? what the fuck???
      Dude it would take like 5 hours to travel that distance on TGV. In an airplane, about two hours.
      The distance you're looking for is more like 200 miles dude (max speed of TGV is about 200).

    • @78Dipar
      @78Dipar 3 роки тому +1

      @@neutrino78x
      By plane, it's far more than 2 hours because of commuting time to airports...

    • @neutrino78x
      @neutrino78x 3 роки тому

      @@78Dipar ok, add the same amount of time to commute the HSR station same difference dipshit.
      Why the fuck would someone sit in a train for 2 or 3 hours when the plane only takes on hour?? This is AFTER you arrive at the place where the vehicle is to leave (you have to make that journey in both cases).
      Look...
      Stop trying to change history and make our cities less than 200 miles apart ok. They are farther apart than that. That's just how history worked out.
      Therefore aviation is a FAR SUPERIOR means of transportation here in the Americas (north and south) and Australia.
      Are you prepared to say Canada and Australia are shitty countries? My guess is that you like both of them especially Canada. Well guess what, Canada doesn't do HSR either, because their cities are also far apart, being another country that takes up the whole width of North America.
      If you want airplanes to be geener, fear not. In the next 20 years, short haul airline routes will be done by battery powered aircraft. Many companies are working on this such as Wright Electric.
      www.weflywright.com/
      Long haul aircraft will be powered by Sustainable Aviation Fuel at first. It is derived from waste and burning it produces 80% less CO2 than normal aviation fuel (kerosene).
      aviationbenefits.org/faqs/what-is-sustainable-aviation-fuel/
      Later on, eventually long haul aircraft will be powered by pure hydrogen. We're not there yet because there isn't a good way to store it on the aircraft. Eventually that's what we will do.
      But unfortunately there's no just no way to get wheel on rail HSR to be applicable in the Americas or Australia. It's not an example of "America sucks", it's simply that our cities are too far apart. Canada is another G7 nation that doesn't do it either, for the same reasons.

    • @78Dipar
      @78Dipar 3 роки тому

      @@neutrino78x I don't deny that for long distance, plane is superior, but the Sustainable Aviation Fuel derived from waste produces as much CO2 than normal aviation fuel (kerosene) is a lie, it's impossible, it produces as much CO2 as kerosene, and producing this fuel also generates CO2 !

    • @neutrino78x
      @neutrino78x 3 роки тому

      @@78Dipar why impossible? Natural gas also emits a lot less co2 than gasoline.

  • @heliosapollyon4391
    @heliosapollyon4391 3 роки тому +2

    The USA is vast and sparsely populated. Cities and towns are like islands in an ocean of endless land

  • @prestondial1992
    @prestondial1992 4 роки тому +38

    I mean. There is no rail in Wyoming because bears can’t ride trains and that’s all that live there

    • @AVeryRandomPerson
      @AVeryRandomPerson 3 роки тому +5

      And because those bears decided to stop providing funding to the Pioneer. SD is the only state to never have had Amtrak service.

    • @09fragglerock1
      @09fragglerock1 3 роки тому +2

      🤣

    • @ImGoingSupersonic
      @ImGoingSupersonic 3 роки тому

      @@AVeryRandomPerson really, S. Dakota ehh, didn't know that.

    • @neutrino78x
      @neutrino78x 3 роки тому

      @@AVeryRandomPerson and they don't need it. There is this thing the Americans invented that allows you to travel at much higher speeds without needing railroad tracks. We call it the airplane.

    • @AVeryRandomPerson
      @AVeryRandomPerson 3 роки тому +1

      @@neutrino78x Actually, Rail is quicker than air travel within 300 miles and a 4 hour journey, meaning it does have a place

  • @stickynorth
    @stickynorth 4 роки тому +3

    Why doesn’t North America have true high speed rail? SADLY…
    It’s not a money issue… The economic crash of 2008 and 2020 prove that!
    It’s not a tech issue… As you can see from the rest of the world…
    It’s not a density issue… Despite that map even if you only built HSR in the denser eastern half of the continent, a network comparable to Europe in size would be created… It has everything to do with a lack of political will and the desire to protect private profits of industries that would lose money. Why? American politicians are bought and sold by corporate interests. The automobile lobby… The concrete lobby… The oil lobby… The airline lobby… All have deep pockets and tons of lawyers on retainer… Sure the government COULD use eminent domain… or using existing transportation corridors like in other nations but they don’t. Even their HSR projects like California tend to be dictated by special interests and the desire for long-term make-work projects than actually achieving a useful transportation network…

    • @banksrail
      @banksrail 4 роки тому

      Everything you just said was fact! Preach!

  • @PanduPoluan
    @PanduPoluan 4 роки тому +45

    USA = a textbook example of shareholder-driven corporatocracy.

    • @paullangford8179
      @paullangford8179 4 роки тому

      Idiocracy. Shareholders just extract the cash from a company like picking a carcass, then move on to the next one.

  • @mayeullnr8706
    @mayeullnr8706 4 роки тому +75

    Talks about china's high speed rail network.
    *Shows french TGV*

    • @trijetz3562
      @trijetz3562 4 роки тому +5

      yeah why can't people just do some light fricking wikipedia research before they waste their time doing inaccurate graphics

    • @manelleh.9357
      @manelleh.9357 3 роки тому

      right ! it's OUR TGV. China has its own masterpieces

  • @Christian-nl7cm
    @Christian-nl7cm 4 роки тому +11

    See the thing is the USA *had* many more tracks but so many were torn up, my town in Arizona had rail until the 90s so unfortunately even if a town wants service it might not be possible anymore without rebuilding tracks ☹️

    • @qjtvaddict
      @qjtvaddict 3 роки тому

      Even if tracks were there you still need to build a new viaduct to get fast trains

  • @yggdrasil9039
    @yggdrasil9039 4 роки тому +2

    High speed rail in the US makes a lot of sense once robotaxis are ubiquitous. You wouldn't bother driving across two states to get to where you wanted to go if you could do it in a third of the time by taking HSR then picking up a robotaxi for the last 20km of your journey.

  • @stokerboiler
    @stokerboiler 4 роки тому +4

    America does not need high-speed trains. Cars and planes fill the needs.
    Americans do not want the regimentation that trains require.

    • @torquetrain8963
      @torquetrain8963 4 роки тому +2

      You don't speak for me. Doesn't need trains? Quit smoking crack. More people die every day due to overuse of cars. I dont want half my paycheck going for car payment, insurance, gas, maintenance. Not needed my ass. Cars are not needed and the endless parking lots to support them. I need trains. Sorry you feel you don't. More people are waking up to car centric idiocy. The cars time will die soon along with all the selfishness it entertains.

    • @torquetrain8963
      @torquetrain8963 4 роки тому

      Not everyone likes to fly or drive either. I don't think you know anything about high speed rail or anything other than the typical brainwashed mindset subdued by big auto, oil and airlines. They lobby against anything and everything passenger rail related because they don't want to loose the financial chokehold that they have over everyone's life. Cars don't represent the same freedom that they once did. Gridlock, road rage, jams, massive expense. No thank you sir. I'll take a 300mph high speed trainset and whiz by while everyone else dies a slow deàth in their coffin on wheels aka personal vehicle. Illusion of freedom. Wake up!!!!! What an incredibly ignorant statement you just uttered. You think you speak for 350 million other people in this nation? You can't build a balanced transportation system with cars and planes alone. We need subways, trams, buses, commuter trains, monorail, light rail, bicycles to supplement cars and planes. How many people have to die for America s to wake up. Auto related deaths kill more people than by any other means. So if the financial factor doesnt phase you , perhaps the human toll will.

    • @torquetrain8963
      @torquetrain8963 4 роки тому

      I want the regimentation Tommy. It's worth it to me. A Balanced system means a better experience for everyone because airlines and highways won't be over taxed thanks to trains and buses , streetcars, taking alot of the burden off. Car centric cities are also extremely dangerous for bicycles and pedestrians. America needs to re think the way it designs it's cities. Ever been to Amsterdam? This is the best example of a successful transportation system utilizing all means. Even water taxis. People can walk downtown and enjoy it's beauty without having to constantly look around every corner in fear of being clobbered by a car or truck.

    • @rich7447
      @rich7447 3 роки тому

      @@torquetrain8963 You are not in the majority on this topic. If you were then there would be plenty of demand which would be identified by a company that saw the potential for profit.

  • @colenelson2505
    @colenelson2505 5 років тому +39

    A great video like always. Well researched and well explained. I also appreciate showing the imperial units alongside the metric units of distances(especially when covering a US topic) doing the conversion is always frustrating.

  • @stokerboiler
    @stokerboiler 4 роки тому +7

    Long story short: Americans do not want high speed passenger rail.

    • @torquetrain8963
      @torquetrain8963 4 роки тому

      False statement. I dont want a car centric death culture. Baby boomers were against trains because they viewed passenger rail as being run by robber barons dictating their lives. Now big auto/oil/airlines are the robber barons. Millennials don't care as much about owning cars. Too much expense attached to the personal automobile or worse status symbol pickup. America's car centric disaster of a transportation system is extremely inefficient and dangerous especially to pedestrians and bicycles.

    • @rich7447
      @rich7447 3 роки тому

      Add a "most" before Americans and you pretty much have it right. Commuter rail is a good way to avoid the congestion of big city traffic, but between two cities I will drive or fly.

  • @eddarby469
    @eddarby469 3 роки тому +1

    Your assertion that bribery is worse in the US than other countries discredited your entire message. You did make an observation I agree with. It is mostly influenced by population density which is least favorable in the US.

  • @ashish6345
    @ashish6345 4 роки тому +2

    Because they have highest number of domestic flights in the world which is a lot faster then train. They got Boeing so planes are more cheaper for them rather then importing them from another country and now they are largest producer of crude oil also so fuel is cheaper for them rather then trains. Plus most Americans love cars.

  • @invertedv12powerhouse77
    @invertedv12powerhouse77 3 роки тому +2

    With planes and cars, there's honestly not a big point in having a high-speed train unless it's alot cheaper than a plane. Which right now isnt

    • @EnjoyFirefighting
      @EnjoyFirefighting 3 роки тому +1

      of course there is ... planes aren't used by the masses for a daily commute, and the streets aren't capable of handling the amount of traffic during rush hour without having a daily traffic jam; Also on a distance where the plane would take 60 to 90 minutes, a high speed train wouldn't go only from one end of the track to the other end, but also serve multiple places in between

    • @faultier1158
      @faultier1158 3 роки тому

      @@EnjoyFirefighting You also don't need such ridiculous levels of security checks before boarding. I think that a high speed train network would make a lot of sense for the US east coast, at the very least.

    • @EnjoyFirefighting
      @EnjoyFirefighting 3 роки тому +1

      @@faultier1158 exactly; Also the size, weight and amount of luggage isn't limited like on a plane

    • @sweetdreamer3352
      @sweetdreamer3352 3 роки тому

      The truth is, if we keep waiting, the cost of construction, will keep getting higher and higher.

  • @Sacto1654
    @Sacto1654 4 роки тому +3

    Look, the sheer physical size of the continental USA makes high-speed rail not very practical except in a very small number of corridors. Boston to Washington, DC has enough population to justify high-speed rail because there are enough riders to start with to justify the cost of high-speed rail, something that JNR understood when they built the Tokaidō Shinkansen between 1959 and 1964 between Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's two largest cities.

    • @qjtvaddict
      @qjtvaddict 2 роки тому

      Pay attention there are many cities with 500k or more within 200 miles and sometimes only 300 miles apart

  • @alexskatit4188
    @alexskatit4188 3 роки тому +1

    We only need one for the Boston-Washington corridor.

  • @TheRailwayDrone
    @TheRailwayDrone 5 років тому +25

    This is an EXCELLENT video and gives a pretty educated point of view as to why this country is so far behind the rest of the developed world. More people need to see this and more politicians need to take action and bring high speed rail to this country. We are destroying this planet with our consumption of combustible fuels. We spend hours in traffic when we could get to our destinations in a reasonable time. So many people have been killed in traffic accidents when it could possibly have been avoided. I've ridden on multiple high speed railways around the world, and I think if more Americans had the opportunity to do so, they would feel differently. I hope things change once we get rid of this administration. I believe the tide is changing and there will be more investment in high speed rail sooner than later.

    • @spearfisherman308
      @spearfisherman308 4 роки тому

      not really the big problem is that only 2 high speed rail lines operate at a profit.

    • @TheRailwayDrone
      @TheRailwayDrone 4 роки тому +2

      @@spearfisherman308 Most high speed railways around the world DON'T operate at a profit. Neither does the interstate highways. They're subsidized.

    • @spearfisherman308
      @spearfisherman308 4 роки тому

      @@TheRailwayDrone nope interstate highways are government run. Secondly trai s like the bullet train are hemmoraging money.

    • @TheRailwayDrone
      @TheRailwayDrone 4 роки тому +1

      @@spearfisherman308 Government run means they're subsidized BY THE GOVERNMENT. And exactly where are high speed trains hemorrhaging money (pre-covid)?

    • @spearfisherman308
      @spearfisherman308 4 роки тому +1

      @@TheRailwayDrone no subsidized means the government gives money the roads are owned and operated by the states secondly I gave an example of the bullet train in japan look it up.

  • @dimarscars329
    @dimarscars329 4 роки тому +3

    We have HSR, the Acela in the northeast. We also have higher speed rail, which allows for speeds greater than 79 MPH, the unofficial FRA limit.

    • @qjtvaddict
      @qjtvaddict 3 роки тому

      That’s complete garbage

  • @nami1540
    @nami1540 3 роки тому +1

    There also is the lack of local network effect. There needs to be a way to get to and from the station without a personal car. It there isn't a sufficient solution (as most of the time in the US), it becomes very unpopular to use the train.

  • @az196823
    @az196823 5 років тому +11

    In the long term that will soon change with the private sector getting involved, I think that would encourage the federal government to put some skin in the game. Also too we need more modern alignments on the Northeast Corridor so train speeds can be increased and journey times reduced as well better reliability or OTP (On Time Performance). We need Gateway Tunnel under the Hudson as well as another rail crossing ending up somewhere between 57th & 51st in Midtown North with an RER system for NY/NJ/CT Tri-state region.

    • @justsamoo3480
      @justsamoo3480 4 роки тому +1

      RER is what New York needs, but it would be hard to build, because backbone of RER and S-bahn are already existing lines and there isn,t much infrastructure and basically no place for stations.

    • @neutrino78x
      @neutrino78x 3 роки тому +2

      talking about hundreds of billions of dollars to eminent domain all kinds of very expensive private property to build something that would only go half the speed of what the private sector provides.
      Just fly. It's faster.

  • @neutrino78x
    @neutrino78x 3 роки тому +1

    CuriousReason,
    It's really simple.
    If the cities and population centers are close enough together, like under 200 miles, then it's worth it.
    That's not the case in the USA, Canada and Australia, nor is it the case in most of South America.
    Canada is also a wealthy nation, one of the G7. But they don't do HSR either, for the same reason. Their cities are simply too far apart to have any benefit.
    For these places -- both American continents and Australia -- HSR makes no sense. Aviation is the only viable solution.

  • @Hexx--13
    @Hexx--13 5 років тому +5

    The biggest problem I see with introducing high speed rail in the U.S. is due to the way our government is structured as it pertains to federal, state, and local in regards to laws, ordinances, regulations, and concerns. Large cites such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston and so forth can be made up of dozens of smaller municipalities that all have their own varied interests. These interests can be in both the public and private sectors, and these interests can number quite high per municipality. I don't see this as much a grand conspiracy, rather each municipality has their own local concerns for any number of reasons. It's much like attempting to herd dozens of cats in terms of large scale public projects.

    • @qjtvaddict
      @qjtvaddict 2 роки тому

      Ban local governments from the conversations

  • @DjChronokun
    @DjChronokun 3 роки тому +3

    US highway system was called the "National System of Interstate and Defense Highways", keyword: Defense.
    USA needs to stop trying to build High Speed Rail and instead build Defense High Speed Rail, problem solved.

    • @blackhole9961
      @blackhole9961 3 роки тому +1

      Highways were built because the country wasn’t connected, even rail during that time didn’t connect every city. The car was simply more flexible. This is also during the 1950s when then end of the era of the train just begun because planes did the same thing, now became affordable, and we’re definitely faster. Also during the 1950s mail moved from trains to planes and you will see the rise of the American suburbs meaning more cars and car dependency and less public transport as sprawling cities grew.

    • @DjChronokun
      @DjChronokun 3 роки тому

      @@blackhole9961 yeah, I was mostly joking, I don't think the USA has much case for nationwide high speed rail, the country is so big (well beyond the ranges where rail can be faster), and the population is so sparse (well below what would justify the infrastructure costs)
      maybe if California can make their high speed rail work, then the Great Lakes megalopolis could follow, but I think that would be about all the high speed rail the US would ever need
      even just doing mass transit is largely incompatible with the low population density suburbia in most of the USA

    • @blackhole9961
      @blackhole9961 3 роки тому +1

      @@DjChronokun California already failed tragically(not surprising, its california) not to mention delta airlines can do the same thing in 1 hour 30 minutes with a ticket cost of less than $100, meanwhile a train would take over 3 hours
      Sadly by Normal American standards the great lake cities are within driving distance as driving 4+ hours to the next city is a norm because thats just how far cities are apart from each other.
      In my honest opinion i really only see the NEC benefiting from HSR as its ridership will(nearly) be there (even though the Acela sometime runs half empty), and the cities are close enough together where trains would be just as fast if not faster, they are also very traffic choked to get anywhere.

    • @DjChronokun
      @DjChronokun 3 роки тому

      @@blackhole9961 maybe they should just widen the highway lanes and tell people they can drive faster instead then
      or focus more on small airports

  • @georgegabriel7766
    @georgegabriel7766 4 роки тому +3

    Nobody would take the trains. America is built around the car and airport.

    • @rich7447
      @rich7447 3 роки тому +1

      High speed trains really only work when you need to get a lot of people from one city center to another city center with no stops in between. If I have to drive into the city to catch a train I may as well drive to my destination or the airport.

    • @georgegabriel7766
      @georgegabriel7766 3 роки тому +1

      @@rich7447 Exactly

  • @beback_
    @beback_ 4 роки тому +10

    A Miami-Orlando line would be really nice.

    • @explorewithmo7850
      @explorewithmo7850 4 роки тому +2

      That is under construction already

    • @mylessvec6440
      @mylessvec6440 4 роки тому +2

      @@explorewithmo7850 Yeah but brightline is not really high speed rail. It’s top speed is 150 kmh

    • @prestondial1992
      @prestondial1992 4 роки тому

      They start a project for that every 10 year or something and it always falls apart

    • @friedemannkemm63
      @friedemannkemm63 4 роки тому +1

      @@mylessvec6440 As far as I know, some parts will be constructed for speeds up to 201 km per hour.

    • @matts1166
      @matts1166 4 роки тому +1

      One thing this video forgot to mention was topography. A good portion of the US isn't conductive to high-speed rail, and that includes Florida. Yes, it can be done, but it's a lot harder and more expensive.

  • @camyado
    @camyado 4 роки тому +3

    Frankly I don’t see it happening. The US is too large and we are too dependent on the car. If you’re taking a train across the country the car rental rate would probably defeat the costs you’d save, not to mention the tax rate.
    I think his 20 year mark is far too optimistic.

  • @johnchow8372
    @johnchow8372 4 роки тому +19

    High speed trains in America will remain THE American dream!

    • @elijaha773
      @elijaha773 4 роки тому +1

      Dream = mostly unreasonable?

    • @torquetrain8963
      @torquetrain8963 4 роки тому

      Dreams do come true.

    • @neutrino78x
      @neutrino78x 3 роки тому

      Uh, no....our jet aircraft are a lot faster, wheel on rail is way too slow here.
      Is Canada backwards dude? Because they don't use HSR either, for the same reason (distances too great).

  • @bob_smite
    @bob_smite 4 роки тому +10

    Yay, I found another video essay channel!

  • @TheSpecialJ11
    @TheSpecialJ11 4 роки тому +2

    An interesting problem of the U.S. is it underwent demographic transition before it hit the Malthus trap, meaning it was not at maximum population before the industrial revolution. Had it been, there would likely be three times as many people, particularly with a population increase in the Midwest and wetter parts of the Great Plains. This would have made the possibility of high speed rail in the U.S. look much more like China's. Add in that the U.S. was a major progenitor of the (second) industrial revolution and it probably would have superseded where China is today in terms of infrastructure.

    • @BasicLib
      @BasicLib 4 роки тому +1

      Thank you for a more sensible comment than “Americans dumb and corrupt”.
      People really don’t get how significant population pressures affected the development of Infrastructure in the US

  • @terrencebenjamin7241
    @terrencebenjamin7241 3 роки тому +1

    Yes the US would benefit from high speed rail if tracks were owned by Amtrak. But there you said it. Bribery and lobbying kills progression for things lien this to happen. Where high speed rail service could definitely happen is the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Philadelphia for regional commuter rail companies own the tracks and give Amtrak priority. If they can retrofit the tracks for high speed, it would make traveling by train a wonderful experience than it is now.

  • @yikunwang7193
    @yikunwang7193 3 роки тому +4

    maybe you guys should vote for a high speed rail, really it's a good experience taking a trip on a high speed rail, quite safe( I'm a little freaky
    about planes those I've ride it several times traveling to America and The UK) and comfortable.

    • @neutrino78x
      @neutrino78x 3 роки тому

      it's a waste of time here because of the distances.
      China can waste money doing that because they are not subject to the will of the people like in a free country.
      In the free world (USA, UK, Canada, Japan etc), we believe "government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed".

  • @selfReferencinDox
    @selfReferencinDox 5 років тому +1

    The US is NOT "the only major country where bribery is legal".
    *Lobbying is NOT bribery and is legal in most countries such as in the UK, Ireland, Canada, and the EU.*
    And, for a long time, the US had the strictest anti-bribery laws in the past. US companies were at a disadvantage compared to European companies because anti-bribery laws prevented US companies from being able to bribe officials in certain countries, whereas European companies could.

  • @tehangrybird345
    @tehangrybird345 4 роки тому +3

    The Acela is getting new stock that will go 160mph, which is fast enough to be considered true high speed rail

    • @Sedna063
      @Sedna063 4 роки тому +3

      But it will not run this speed for the most part.

    • @richiesquest3283
      @richiesquest3283 2 роки тому

      @ Teh angry bird 345 The Acela high tec train on third world rails.

  • @felixoskarmikolajski8593
    @felixoskarmikolajski8593 3 роки тому +4

    You didn't have that problem to find some land for interstate highways.

    • @EnjoyFirefighting
      @EnjoyFirefighting 3 роки тому +1

      however in recent decades hardly ANY new interstates were built

  • @zhappy
    @zhappy 2 роки тому

    7:24 What? There is no line connecting Mainland China to Taiwan. Taiwan does have a separate high speed rail which uses the Japanese Shinkansen trains.

  • @whatthef911
    @whatthef911 4 роки тому +2

    Suburban sprawl was driven by zoning laws making it difficult to build housing in cities. US is far less dense than Europe, China, or Japan because our zoning laws force sprawl and long commutes.

    • @paullangford8179
      @paullangford8179 4 роки тому +1

      Given the number of people who voted for Trump, I'd say the US is far more dense than anywhere else.

  • @paulofernandes8652
    @paulofernandes8652 3 роки тому +2

    Try not privatize so much and maybe you will have a train network again.
    High speed trains are only operate profit. If you add the infrastructure costs none are.
    Neverthless governments finance that infrastructure because its a social good meaning the overall benefits to society makes it a better off solucion S a whole

  • @KohlerSAStudios
    @KohlerSAStudios 3 роки тому +1

    What I am curious to know is that Europe has a vast railway network used by millions of people daily. So if the airlines in the USA want to dominate the market of traveling between cities how is it that Deutche Bahn is considered to be the second largest transport company in the world & Lufthansa is the 3rd most profitable airline in the world. Deutche Bahn and Lufthansa are railway and airline company and yet they are both profitable with rail and air travel been both optional in Europe.
    The most profitable budget airline in the world is Ryanair which is based in Europe or is that because they fly to secondary airports out of the city like Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in France instead of Charles De Gallo Airport Paris , which forces passengers to take the train to the main city after they travel.

    • @blackhole9961
      @blackhole9961 3 роки тому +2

      Because planes already serve the same purpose but are far more, cost effective and still faster at the end of the day. US cities really aren’t that close to each other, in America everything is either driving distance or flying distance not to mention 4hours+ driving to get to the next city is accepted as normal.

    • @EnjoyFirefighting
      @EnjoyFirefighting 3 роки тому

      @@blackhole9961 "in America everything is either driving distance or flying" for the daily commute that only leaves one "option" which is driving your private car as people basically have not the choice to get on public transit, trains or even HSR. on a well layed out network taking public transit can be both cheaper and faster than driving, and even the walking distances while taking public transit might still be shorter (!) than while driving by car

    • @blackhole9961
      @blackhole9961 3 роки тому

      @@EnjoyFirefighting "a well layed out network taking public transit can be both cheaper and faster than driving, and even the walking distances while taking public transit might still be shorter" cheaper maybe, faster lol no. Id still have to drive to a commuter train station just to even pay and get on, again this process is from A to B to C to D where as a car is just directly from point A to B. Even from my personal experience on Dallas DART rail it took me nearly 1 hours longer to arrive at the state fair of Texas wasting so much time when I could have just drove and been there and hour earlier. Some form of Commuter rail does exist in lots of American cities, its just no one uses them compared to the amount of people that use the car. Even in LA, their commuter rail is actually pretty good, but has low ridership simply because the city is too big with sprawl.
      HSR will never be viable unless its on the NEC because planes will simply just outcompete them in speed and cost. Who's gonna pay $200+ dollars for a train ticket when southwest airlines can get me to the same destination in half the cost and in half the time. Isn't the famous Eurotunnel even being outcompeted with low cost airlines that basically do the same thing in the same time but half the cost. That thing is so expensive its even putting itself into bankruptcy, and you really think an even lower density far more spread out America would ever have use for it?!?

    • @EnjoyFirefighting
      @EnjoyFirefighting 3 роки тому

      @@blackhole9961 I wouldn't have said (wrote) it if I didn't made first hand experience in various places, however let me say that I'm absolutely not surprised that it takes longer in the US as public transit networks are NOT well layed out, don't have tight networks concerning coverage of the area and linking places effectively.
      let me pick up your last argument first: " and you really think an even lower density far more spread out America would ever have use for it" take a look at Norway: they have HALF the population density compared to the US and the entire country has only two thirds of the population of New York City alone; Still they run high speed trains in the most populated area, and oh boy, they run them on a 10 minute schedule! Besides that, they have passenger rail connecting the largest cities in the country and beyond that even the most rural areas are still covered by public transport via bus, sth the US didn't manage either
      Looking at our capital and looking only at one section of track, they run commuter trains on a 2 minute schedule during rush hour, that's 30 trains per minute and direction, with each train having a capacity of 1.632 passengers that's up to 49k passengers on that track alone, in one direction, not looking at all the other tracks, all other trains, subway, tram or buses. That's what I expect from a moderate network (and no I still can't rate that as pretty good as my expectations for that would be higher in some aspects of the network
      From my state's capital city (Munich) to our country's capital (Berlin) it would take 5h40min to drive the 370 miles; Taking the train takes 4h30 min, despite the stops in between thats more than an hour faster.
      I also had a commute from my city to another city roughly an hour away (from Regensburg to Nuremberg). With my car parked in the garage underneath me it would still have taken longer to drive into the downtown area of the state's 2nd largest city and then search for an expensive place to park somewhere relatively far off from my actual destination (so much for directly A to B), than me walking across the street, taking the bus to our central station, taking the inter city train to the other city's central station, getting on the subway for 1 stop or the tram for 2 stops and finally walk half a block. Was half an hour faster by taking bus, train and subway.
      Lately I lived in a small town and wasn't allowed to park any of our cars in front of the house, so I had to park them in another street where it was legal, or in a park garage, anyway I first had a 10 minute walk to my car...
      Also on shorter connections like e.g. from an airport down into the heart of the city, take Oslo for example: 50 to 60 minutes of driving vs 25 minutes by train.
      Even within a city, the bus passing traffic in a bus lane, a tram on a seperated track or subway can be much faster than driving even if traffic is flowing. Not standing behind a dozen other vehicles at the traffic light, getting priority lights, reaching higher speeds, ...
      Concerning the Eurotunnel vs planes: well on planes you have restrictions on amount and weight of luggage, on trains you can get as much with you as you can carry along; Also the plane won't get your car across while the train does that
      Planes vs trains discussion in general: all kinds of trains including HSR are for much shorter distances; People commute with high speed trains but I haven't heard of people commuting by plane on a daily basis. Also planes vs trains pick up your argument: while trains go directly from downtown to downtown and the lower the train category the more it covers also other parts of the city, other towns and villages directly, you'd first have to go out of the city to the airport somewhere at the edge of the city in order to take a plane. Same thing other way around upon arrival, first have to get into the city again. And another aspect on that topic: you can just jump onto the train and once it's ready it sets off; At airports you need to be there 1 to 2 hours before take-off, spend time on check-in and security checks, board the plane, wait for all the luggage to be loaded, and even when it's ready it still has to roll to the runway; And at the destination airport you wait for your luggage etc; All that doesn't exist on trains; On short flighty of 1 hour you basically have no advantage by taking the plane as all together it takes roughly the same amount of time like going the same distance by train. Not sure about your area, but here plane tickets are very expensive; There are some cheap ones, but that's without luggage and maybe not even a direct flight and with extremly long stop over times at another airport. On trains we have all kinds of discounts, from 25% / 50% / 100% discount cars to school kids / student tickets, tickets for elderly, groups, city tickets, state tickets, mid-day tickets, weekend tickets, tickets linked to specific events, early bird discounts, there are even tickets like €100 for 4 train rides (€25 per ride) no matter which kind of train you take and how far you want to go. Going from Munich to Hamburg, taking the train a regular ticket would be roughly €150 for a 6 hrs9min trip (most regular travelers will have the 50% discount card); A plane ticket starts off at €260 (doesn't include public transit or taxi to and from the airport!) and ranges up to €1.263 (!!!) and travel time ranges from 1h15 min to 23h05min, again just insane.

  • @maestrulgamer9695
    @maestrulgamer9695 3 роки тому +4

    Short story:The airplane corporations lobby the guvernment to stop high speed trains.

    • @jk3jk35
      @jk3jk35 3 роки тому +1

      three industries, actually. airplane, auto, and fossil fuel.

  • @ChaseKelleh
    @ChaseKelleh 2 роки тому

    I live near a train track in a small city in the US, and I've gotta say those railroads hardly ever get used. Like maybe 3 trains come through in a week, and its a busy week. So much wasted potential after seeing what it's like in these other places

  • @albertogambino2562
    @albertogambino2562 4 роки тому

    1:40 Maglev is something diffrent. It is not a conventional wheeled train but a magnetic one, running only between Shanghai Pudong Airport to Longyang Road in Shanghai, a trip of around 30 km done in 7 and half minutes.

  • @kirkc9643
    @kirkc9643 5 років тому +20

    You need to do whatever you can to promote your channel. You have great quality videos but clearly far too few subscribers. I'm here because someone commented on a video Real Life Lore did that was similar to your about sailing in a straight line.

  • @ayersjrmichael
    @ayersjrmichael 4 роки тому +8

    I believe that High Speed Rail should work in the United States because not only it's about the economy, but traveling between two cities in one state would be too short to fly and too long to drive. Even between two cities in different state such as Charlotte and Atlanta, it would make a lot more sense to believe that high speed rail is necessary instead of wasting gas money to travel 4 hours to get to these destinations. I think it would be too short to fly from Charlotte to Atlanta because why would I go through all this TSA security gate and getting my bags check just to get to one place in just an hour. Plus, you can't be making phone calls during the flights. So with that being said, High speed rail is the answer to America and I'm hoping many people understands why is this so important to this country.

    • @hsun7997
      @hsun7997 4 роки тому

      But gas is cheap. And most people don't mind driving for 5 hours. Furthermore, if you drive, you just go from A to B immediately. You don't have to first go to a train station/airport, get on the train/plane, get off, and then drive again to your destination. If you just drive, you go where you want to go immediately.

    • @ayersjrmichael
      @ayersjrmichael 4 роки тому +1

      hsun79 so you don’t mind getting stuck in traffic? Who cares if gas is cheaper?

    • @torquetrain8963
      @torquetrain8963 4 роки тому

      @@hsun7997 trains are safer. You can also ride a bicycle directly into the train. Some people don't drive or want to drive or pay 500 a month car payment/insurance/fuel/road taxes/registration/maintenance, deal with road rage, jams, detours ,idiot diesel pickup show offs. You can get a monthly rail pass for a mere fraction of what it costs to own and operate a car. There needs to be more than just cars as the only choice. What about elderly/ disabled. The list goes on. Cars can't do 250 mph either like high speed rail does.

  • @sanchitkumar6945
    @sanchitkumar6945 4 роки тому +1

    Try to build web like rail network on West Coast, East Coast, Colorado, Texas, Nevada, Arizona and Illinois. Don't need HSR in rest of America

  • @vicc4229
    @vicc4229 5 років тому +6

    imagine when 100 Millions cars are added into american's freeway in 20 more years ??

  • @MAtukulis
    @MAtukulis 5 років тому +7

    Hi, you content is high quality. How do you choose a topic when making new video?

  • @michaelnaak
    @michaelnaak 4 роки тому +2

    Crony capitalism is a huge issue in the US, though bribery isn't legal. They can't pay you to vote, but they can give you a nice cushy job after you get out of office--such as Obama working for Netflix now (how surprising). I'm not saying bribery doesn't happen, it is just that lobbyists can't legally give them money.
    High-speed rails might come to American eventually, but right now it just doesn't work culturally. Even if you have a high-speed rail to get me from one city to the next, I would need good public transportation once I get there. Public transportation is often too expensive or unreliable. Plus, as an American, I just want to go somewhere when I want to get there--I don't want to wait on a bus or subway.
    When spending a little time in New York, their patience was one thing that impressed me so much about New Yorkers. When going from Queens to Manhattan, my friends took me on a number of different busses and trains, and we had to walk at times multiple blocks in between stops and be at certain places before the bus or train left, or we would be waiting a while. These friends of mine, high school students at the time, didn't even own cars. Their families didn't even own cars. They had this huge network of public transportation that they used regularly memorized and were willing to walk miles and take over an hour to get somewhere that we could have gotten to in half that time if we had a car. And, I believe New York's public transit is probably the best in our country.
    Taxies and Uber-like companies are an option, but they can be expensive. Plus, with how communication works now, there just isn't as much of a need to travel in between cities. Before American cities invest in high-speed rails, they first need to come up with public transit that is efficient in terms of fuel use and cost and in terms of getting people from one place to another.

    • @torquetrain8963
      @torquetrain8963 4 роки тому

      Cars are extremely expensive. Loan payments, fuel, insurance, taxes, registration, maintenance, road rage, jams. Cars kill more people every day in the U.S. than any other means. People want more choices for transportation. How many more have to die until change is made. Time for HSR , and light rail, buses, bicycles, infrastructure change is now. Growing population will supply the workforce to build it. Win win. Car centrism needs to die.

    • @michaelnaak
      @michaelnaak 4 роки тому

      @@torquetrain8963, I don't disagree with some of your ideas. There is just so much that needs to happen before a high-speed rail would make sense. My area, the greater Phoenix area, has a light rail, but it only has one line. If you live in Mesa and what to go to downtown Phoenix, it's cool and works. However, if you want to go to any of the other cities in the valley, you have to use busses, which would take you 2-4 times longer to get where you want to go. It just isn't feasible for most people. Building the necessary infrastructure would take a decade given how slow Americans are at getting things like infrastructure done.

  • @kirkreyes3368
    @kirkreyes3368 4 роки тому +2

    Once again, the public’s interests are not being served. High speed railway lines, particularly in the areas of the country that you highlighted, would be a great economic and cultural boon to areas that airlines and even highways simply cannot serve.

  • @silvermist1216
    @silvermist1216 5 років тому +6

    High speed rail would behoove the country as a whole but in the US people only care about themselves not the people as a whole. Those are just the facts.

  • @modelyh0
    @modelyh0 4 роки тому +2

    In europe
    State owns the railway and both freight and passenger pay for it

    • @AVeryRandomPerson
      @AVeryRandomPerson 3 роки тому +1

      Actually, the freight companies own the lines, but Amtrak is supposed to get priority. I don't think you know what your talking about.

    • @modelyh0
      @modelyh0 3 роки тому

      @@AVeryRandomPerson I'm talking about europe

  • @Inactivefr610
    @Inactivefr610 4 роки тому +3

    Acela and ACS64: am I a joke to you?

  • @betancourt564
    @betancourt564 3 роки тому

    I see HST good for medium distances, not probably from Coast to coast but good for instance Seattle-Portland-San Francisco-LA-San Diego

  • @sidneyboo9704
    @sidneyboo9704 5 років тому +2

    Well freaking said. I hate the airlines. In the USA, theres no freedom if there is no CHOICE.

  • @bookshelf5759
    @bookshelf5759 4 роки тому +2

    Because planes are way better and way faster this is ridiculous

  • @christysamuel8725
    @christysamuel8725 4 роки тому +4

    I think that the free market does best and based on the explanation...population density is very low in the USA hence the lack of high speed rail network but since the economics of bulk transportation the USA has by far the best freight train system...
    i love the free market...hence very smart decision...also lets not whine that we don't have a high speed rail network as even if we do build it it would operate at a loss...again due to population density

    • @qjtvaddict
      @qjtvaddict 3 роки тому

      Lol still you believe that?

  • @myyoutube5567
    @myyoutube5567 4 роки тому +1

    Bad transport can lead to low levels of labor mobility which can affect the growth of an economy.

  • @hsun7997
    @hsun7997 4 роки тому +11

    Until trains become faster than planes, this is never going to happen. The US is simply too large and too sparsely populated for HSR to be profitable in many places. Especially since Americans think that driving 10 hours to go somewhere is normal. I do think that big cities that are within a 1.5 hr flight (i.e. St. Louis and Chicago) should be connected by HSR. But one can dream.

    • @chriswill9473
      @chriswill9473 4 роки тому +1

      I agree that long HSR is pointless in America but cities that are close together makes a lot more sense, live in one , work in the other. Endless housing and jobs opportunities

    • @torquetrain8963
      @torquetrain8963 4 роки тому

      Hyperloop is faster than air.

    • @regulate.artificer_g23.mdctlsk
      @regulate.artificer_g23.mdctlsk 3 роки тому +2

      Airlines are only faster in very long/intercontinental distances.

    • @jonasbijlsma9943
      @jonasbijlsma9943 3 роки тому +2

      In shorter flight distances (those up to say 2 to 3 hours) high speed trains are actually faster door to door here in Europe even though they travel way slower than planes. It's incredible how inefficient it is to drive all the way to an airport, waste an hour or so at the airport to go through customs and board compared to going from city center to city center with a train. Your point with the US being more sparsely populated is indeed correct, but that doesn't mean that a high speed train isn't a very good option in many parts of the country with cities that are relatively close to each other. Look at France for exemple, that managed to completely get rid of all domestic flights while being a relatively big country with substantial pieces of empty land (outside of Paris) that are still well-connected by train, cause the government simply decided to invest in a more effecient way of transport.

  • @zdarkley1514
    @zdarkley1514 4 роки тому

    2:41 is there a border between west and easr germany ??

    • @paullangford8179
      @paullangford8179 4 роки тому

      No. Just the foundations of abandoned border posts along the A2 anyway, and a funny separation of some of the lanes. I think they changed the speed limit from none to 120 kph there, though.

  • @EnjoyFirefighting
    @EnjoyFirefighting 3 роки тому

    population density is often an argument, however not a very good one: look at Norway: they have HALF the population density compared to the US and the entire country has only two thirds of the population of New York City alone; Still they run high speed trains in the most populated area, and oh boy, they run them on a 10 minute schedule! Besides that, they have passenger rail connecting the largest cities in the country and beyond that even the most rural areas are still covered by public transport via bus, sth the US didn't manage either

  • @ch98hb
    @ch98hb 4 роки тому

    Great video, you deserve more views. Also nice class conciousness with the lobbying and the military budget :)

  • @fredyyfredfreddy
    @fredyyfredfreddy 4 роки тому

    Use the swedish system provided by ABB. It runs on normal tracks and therefore does not need new tracks

    • @paullangford8179
      @paullangford8179 4 роки тому +1

      Not high speed, just fast.

    • @fredyyfredfreddy
      @fredyyfredfreddy 4 роки тому

      @@paullangford8179 This is true, but it is the only option right now that is economically justifiable for the Americans I think and it is still much faster than regular passenger trains.

  • @michaelbuntine362
    @michaelbuntine362 4 роки тому +1

    I would say the main reason why USA has no high-speed rail links is because the USA loves there cars too much.. Where has here in England we want to get pissed and get the train or bus home within half hour to our house...we really don't take kindly to drink driving

  • @Brian_rock_railfan
    @Brian_rock_railfan 4 роки тому +3

    what about brightline !?🚄🚃🚄

  • @qjtvaddict
    @qjtvaddict 3 роки тому +1

    Many American cities died when the trains left

  • @KNGexp
    @KNGexp 4 роки тому +8

    Unfortunately, High Speed Rail in the United States in the Eastern Seaboard would have to be underground. It would take lots of time & money to construct. Maybe in the future, cross those fingers for it!

    • @kenshii7404
      @kenshii7404 4 роки тому +4

      why would they have to be underground?

    • @leebennett1821
      @leebennett1821 4 роки тому +1

      Do property rights extend to the area under the Property?

    • @qjtvaddict
      @qjtvaddict 3 роки тому

      @@leebennett1821 no need

  • @Zerosen89
    @Zerosen89 16 днів тому

    I don't think the US will ever beable to establish a nationwide high speed rail network, if one ever exists, it will only be regional between the biggest citites, but small cities where I live will never see one.

  • @sl600rt
    @sl600rt 4 роки тому

    High-speed rail needs population dense corridors.
    Rail is about moving huge volumes of passengers. Not fast movement or convenient movement.
    The only such corridor that exists in the USA is DC to Boston.

    • @ianhomerpura8937
      @ianhomerpura8937 3 роки тому

      Why is there no density?
      Because suburban sprawl has been encoded into law. Abolish single family zoning, and density will rise.
      Of course NIMBYs won't like that.

    • @sl600rt
      @sl600rt 3 роки тому

      @@ianhomerpura8937 oh it's beyond that.
      Think about Japan and California.
      Same square footage. Japan has 90 million more people.

  • @mercedbread9045
    @mercedbread9045 4 роки тому +2

    12:16 It’s unrealistic to even suggest the US give up military spending for 1 year

  • @aniketalextirkey3437
    @aniketalextirkey3437 4 роки тому +3

    The US should build high speed rail.

  • @roninnder
    @roninnder 4 роки тому +3

    It’s because we drive cars. Cars make trains pretty pointless.

    • @wind4686
      @wind4686 4 роки тому +1

      Yeah and for me i love driving a car rather than sitting in a train

    • @torquetrain8963
      @torquetrain8963 4 роки тому

      Sitting in traffic is pretty pointless too. Cars kill more people every day than by any other means in America.

    • @rich7447
      @rich7447 3 роки тому

      @@torquetrain8963 Cars do not kill more people every day than any other means. Approximately 100 people are killed each day in automobile related accidents (36,000 per year - www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/yearly-snapshot). That is roughly the same as the number that die in falls, approximately 75% of the number of people that commit suicide each year and about 55% of the number of people that die from poisoning/drug overdose.

  • @somedude8468
    @somedude8468 4 роки тому +2

    Underrated chanel

  • @ElGatoDelInfierno
    @ElGatoDelInfierno 4 роки тому +2

    The only high speed train in New York is the f train

  • @JK-ku2mj
    @JK-ku2mj 3 роки тому +1

    Because it is a wast of money

  • @mecharoo
    @mecharoo 3 роки тому

    7:16 I don't think there's a high speed rail to taiwan

  • @jorgegutierrez9484
    @jorgegutierrez9484 3 роки тому +1

    Lobbying is indeed legalized bribery, but that's not a uniquely American problem.. That sadly happens in other parts of the world too

  • @AllenMQuinn
    @AllenMQuinn 5 років тому +2

    Canada doesn't either. North America needs to catch up... it's ridiculous

    • @andreiplane8380
      @andreiplane8380 5 років тому +2

      What about Australia?

    • @AdamSmith-gs2dv
      @AdamSmith-gs2dv 4 роки тому

      Canada only has 30 million people, that's HALF the population of the United Kingdom a tiny fucking island...

    • @hsun7997
      @hsun7997 4 роки тому

      Because Canada is even huger and more sparsely populated that it wouldn't make sense. The only areas of Canada that would be feasible for HSR would be Vancouver-Seattle, Calgary-Edmonton and Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa-New York

    • @Bananaman-hk6qw
      @Bananaman-hk6qw 4 роки тому

      Yeah yeah drag Canada here in too..

    • @Bananaman-hk6qw
      @Bananaman-hk6qw 4 роки тому

      Canada doesn't need to, almost all the people are along the South, and it's easily reachable.

  • @Alex-se4tk
    @Alex-se4tk 3 роки тому +1

    *laughs in sweden with the X2000 train which is around 30-40yr old and max speed is 200kmph and is really not a high speed train

  • @ApplePotato
    @ApplePotato 5 років тому

    High Speed Rail will work in the US. Just look at the amount of domestic flights. But the problem is cost. The US does not have domestic high speed rail tech and it is relying on importing existing tech from other countries and this increases the cost dramatically. Arguably, China does have the worlds best high speed rail system in terms of cost/perf. But the US will be too stubborn to import China's system. There are also talks about the north east maglev system using SCMaglev system developed by Japan but it is already projected to cost 80billion dollars for 250km of track Chūō Shinkansen
    .

    • @hsun7997
      @hsun7997 4 роки тому

      @Craig F. Thompson We can't even maintain those properly. So what makes you think we can build even more new infrastructure? lol

  • @oscarmrch5325
    @oscarmrch5325 3 роки тому

    2:46 Why is Germany still split up into east and west on this map? XD

    • @prolarka
      @prolarka 3 роки тому

      That is a river's line.

  • @revbigmoney
    @revbigmoney 4 роки тому

    Beijing to zhengzhou is far longer than Washington to Boston and u cant change my mind

  • @pepsdeps
    @pepsdeps 4 роки тому

    I came in here expecting more talk only about american car culture, but boy am I glad to hear someone actually calling out lobbying, high spending on car infrastructure, oil production and _military spending_ because those are the true enemies of implementing affordable and effective rail transport in the US

  • @brandoYT
    @brandoYT 3 роки тому

    corruption, RR have become developers (so much free land,when they built original tracks.) - why work.
    GM/Firestone/Con Edison took apart city Rail --- buses.
    NO RR company has bought land for well over a century.

  • @eeforest7122
    @eeforest7122 4 роки тому

    what program do you use?

  • @gelatinocyte6270
    @gelatinocyte6270 4 роки тому

    Pay attention to the Ferris wheel around 12:00

  • @Someone-wh8hi
    @Someone-wh8hi 4 роки тому

    4:05 in china "resettlement" doesn't cost anything. They don't pay back...

  • @ethanfoo9154
    @ethanfoo9154 5 років тому +12

    Nice

  • @Someone-wh8hi
    @Someone-wh8hi 4 роки тому

    1:30 An insult to show an European train (TGV) while talking about a terrorist run country...

  • @bill.j.pearce
    @bill.j.pearce 4 роки тому +4

    Great video, I've always wondered this myself.

  • @Ben-li9zb
    @Ben-li9zb 3 роки тому

    Good video, and I agree with a lot of your points. but I don't feel that pointing out that America spends money on their military is really a valid complaint. It's not like they could just not spend money on it for 2 years to build a system that (in their eyes) is unprofitable and ineffective