Quote:
Originally Posted by plutonicpanda
The Amtrak proposal while needed isn't that exciting. It will bring our rail network from 1880 to 1930
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U.S. passenger rail service was spectacular in 1930. All of the great union stations had just been built or were about to come online. For example, Cincinnati's new Union Terminal, with 16 through platforms, opened in 1933:
This project included tons of passenger-train specific improvements, like two passenger-train only viaducts to two different bridges over the Ohio River. The terminal has had just one every-other-day passenger train in the Amtrak era. The piers of those viaducts are still there but the decking is gone. All of that was paid for with private money. The stockholders and bondholders all took baths.
Biden-era funding isn't going to come close to restoring even 10% of what used to exist in the interior of the country 100 years ago. Many of the rail lines have been completely abandoned or given over to bike paths.
That said, the Chicago-centered plan is sound and without a doubt the business exists to run 5+ daily trains to each of the 2~ million metros within a 300-mile radius. Almost no major capital spending is necessary to achieve this aside from ordering the trains themselves.