Vain Trains

Americans aren't taking the train:

Train travel just isn’t feasible or affordable stateside, and Americans prefer the freedom that comes with the automobile. My friend Gabriella Hoffman, who is the director of the Center for Energy and Conservation at the Independent Women’s Forum, as well as a columnist at Townhall, wrote a response to Richards’ column on her Substack. “Americans have free will to take trains,” she declared. “Nobody is stopping you from taking a sleeper train — though the options are limited compared to Europe. But it’s not the most effective way to travel across the country. Not by a long shot.” She admitted that rail travel makes sense in the dense metroplex around D.C. and New York City:

Amtrak makes sense from DC to NYC. I can go from downtown D.C. to NYC Penn Station in 4-4.5 hours. It makes less sense going from NYC to Rochester, NY via the Hudson River Valley. One-way, with stops, that trip can last 7-8 hours. By comparison, one can drive that same route in about 6 hours. When I traveled to Boston, I either took the metro within city limits or drove by car to travel to nearby stops in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maine.

But it just doesn’t make sense to travel by train for the vast interior of the country. Even if we had unlimited funds to build a massive rail system, Americans probably wouldn’t go for it. As much as Europe venerates train travel, the Great American Road Trip is a romantic ideal.

The romance is over...