Map Enthusiasts

The United States is more rural than Europe.

All roads lead to… Chicago?

Why is no one concerned that europe has taken the place of mexico??? Where is mexico now??? How is this not international news?

I once decided to take the train from Denver to Chicago rather than flying. Just to see the country.

One train per day.

Just fucking one train per day.

bUt tHe US Is a yOunGEr coUnTrY! wE haVeN't HaD mUCh TiMe tO caTcHuP.

Yeah but what about the size difference between the two countries?

... Oh wait...

Goes to show how successful the oil and automobile lobbyists. The US passenger railway network is a fucking flop. When will they finally use electric locomotive instead of the pollution belching diesel electrics.

It also doesn't acknowledge that a lot of that is just empty space. The US is ranked 180 of 242 nations in population density.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density

The US rail system has been bastardized since its inception, but this map is basically useless. The UK has 7x the population density as the US.

I mean yes this does show passenger trains but it doesn't actually show all of the passenger trains such as the lines that run in Utah nor south well over a hundred miles carrying passengers for commuter purposes. So there's quite a few lines that are missing on here there's also lines that run up and down the East Coast I know as well and there's other passenger trains and other cities such as salt lake as well.

Apparently the situation with freight is the opposite, where the US networks are efficient compared to Europe (and even China), hence so much stuff is trucked across Europe instead.

As always, take YT videos with grains of salt, but it makes good points:

https://youtu.be/77pIj8kURoY

Meanwhile, other videos suggest that the US's own passenger rail suppliers (like manufacturers/designers) are basically gone because the situation is so bad, hence companies like Amtrak end up importing EU stuff.

Germany used to have more 30 years ago. Scheiß Kohl und Schröder

And as a Canadian, I'm even envious of the trains in the US. Pretty much the only thing but here we are.

Anecdote time: I was visiting Europe, sitting in Liège and arrived there from Aachen with a train ticket I bought the day before. My next step was Brussels or Ghent but I wasn't decided yet and didn't have a ticket, so I just bought one on the spot for the next train, in an hour. While eating fast food and waiting for that train, I was trying to book a train in Canada next week when I'd return, to go from Montréal to Drummondville. However I was already too late. There was still available tickets but there were over $100 CAD for a trip that would normally cost about $32 CAD if I would have booked it a month in advance. And the next departure was 3 hours later, still overpriced. So, no train in Canada for me, even a week in advance.

In short, in Canada, there's only 5 trains a day between major cities, and you have to book weeks in advance otherwise the prices can triple if you're last minute. And they don't take bikes. And they weigh your bagage.

So I was in Europe, taking trains last minute here and there, while unable to book a train ticket at a reasonable price for the next week in Canada. VIA Rail sucks so much.