I wish passenger rail had the same model.
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Replying to @BitingGadfly @380kmh
It used to, was hard to compete with heavily subsidized road and air networks. Once the lines lost the mail contracts, there really was no revenue and since this was all pre-Staggers act, they were losing money on freight as well.
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Replying to @PWilliamKitty @BitingGadfly
Not really...even when they had a captive market, us railways were generally hostile to passenger needs. Absolutely no surprise that people turned to cars asap
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Replying to @380kmh @PWilliamKitty
I'm not arguing this since I don't know, but what would be good reading on the subject/a summary of what this entailed? Movies and books and such from the pre-war era don't seem to cast US rail as particularly bad.
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Replying to @BitingGadfly @380kmh
I will have to search for some of those. For the 70s-90s, “The Men who loved trains” is my goto
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Replying to @PWilliamKitty @BitingGadfly
some passages in Mees's "Transport For Suburbia" cover the problem, but the best evidence is in numerous 19th century books with titles like "The Railroad Problem"
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"American Railroads as Investments" (1893) is relentlessly positive but full of tells, and also lays bare the core issue: freight was more profitable with less effort
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The best passenger rail in that era was to be found on interurbans and streetcars rather than on major intercity railways (except where they provided commuter services--and even then...)
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Replying to @380kmh @BitingGadfly
Yeah, peak is really in the streamliner era, where you have Chessie vs the PRR to see who has the Best, smoothest, air conditioned sleepers with Pullman service
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Replying to @PWilliamKitty @BitingGadfly
...which is great for overnight trips, but most travel is over shorter distances--and most people trying to get somewhere would rather pay as little as they can and not bother with reservations
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The sort of travel which US railways excelled at providing was that which *most mimicked freight,* ie long distances and low frequencies, with the impetus on travelers to reserve trips in advance rather than on the railway to provide many trips on spec and expect ppl to show up
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This is exactly the sort of mentality that must be avoided for passenger rail to work in USA today, which is why--while I would be happy to see private passenger rail--I absolutely do not want the class ones to operate it!
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One of the crucial parts of breaking up and privatizing Japan National Railways was the divorce of freight operations from passenger, systemwide--even tho they still shared infrastructure and ROW. Different mentalities, do not mix!
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