Why is decent rail service, like basic medical care, a contentious issue in the U.S.? Even this article casts shade by saying 'Bear is located about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Biden’s home of Wilmington.' As if having access to public transportation is some kind of left wing elite privelege that no one else can utilize.
Because of capitalism and the US oil and car industry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy
Because conservatives have tricked people into believing that spending money for quality of life improvements is bad.
It cuts into the money we give military contractors.
One part of the problem is that Congress has a rural bias, so there are a lot of rural Congresspersons who don't see the benefit of better rail service so they won't vote for it.
Car companies successfully got out ahead of Adam Something and NJB viewers to conspiricize 15 minute cities
Why is decent rail service treated as something only the north east can have? Like, I’m glad they’re getting more, but it can be frustrating how there’s a fair amount in one area and basically none west of the Appalachian mountains.
America is about twice the size of all of Europe. Railroads were controlled by monopoly rich people. Once America became more industrialized, planes became a better cargo transit option. That and the interstate system made trucks an even better economical option. Railroads were not an option as they were expensive and land intensive(which also meant more money for acquiring land)
For medical care, the US government actually spends a bunch on healthcare on par with most other countries. Just that a majority of the monet will go to a bloated medical company into a billionair's pocket before any of it applies to an individual.
So, extreme capitalism ruined both. Yet we have politicians and people who think we should push further towards a capitalistic way of running things..
Railroads are land intensive but somehow 27 lane highways aren’t? Also wait until you find out how expensive it is to maintain all of those highways…
California is as densely populated as Spain, which has an excellent high speed rail network, the northeastern US has densities comparable with Central Europe and the rest of the East coast is well within the ranges seen in western Europe.
the u.s. spends up to twice as much on health care, and doesn't cover 'as much' or 'as many', as those other nations that have nationalized or 'socialized' health care programs.
America is about twice the size
I’m going with “size doesn’t matter” here; it’s all politics. On the one hand we have a political requirement that all these long distance routes be kept running, even if they’ll never be viable, never be funded adequately. But on the other hand most of the population is in urban/suburban areas that could be effectively served by good rail service. We don’t have the political will power to create good rail service where it’s most effective, most needed, but we do waste money on bad rail service where it will never be effective
Railroads were not an option as they were expensive and land intensive
I’m not buying this, since the tracks and right of way used to exist. Yes it’s really expensive to acquire now, and that’s going to happen since centers of population change but you can’t use this as an historical reason, because historically we had a lot more train service.
The biggest Amtrak fan? Maybe he can stop fucking them over by refusing to enforce existing law to give right-of-way preference to passenger rail.
If he did that then warren buffet might only earn an extra billion instead of the 1.2 billion he was hoping for. The horror!
He doesn't seem to be a big fan of commercial rail either as the federal government stepped in to quash workers striking over lax safety shortly before that train derailed and dumped toxic waste all over a city in Ohio.
That's incorrect. The administration worked with that union to meet their demands after the initial pause of the strike. That part didn't get nearly as much news traffic as the first part though.
You seen the same non-rail union statement that everyone be posting. Demands were not met, a few unions got less than they planned to strike over. Others got nothing.
Hmmm who should I trust more: the statements released by the unions or some rando pushing a political agenda on the Internet?
Awesome. The north east corridor should have more trains.
More trains, faster trains, fewer interruptions of service. This is the closest we have to good train service, the most in demand, the most useful. We’ll use everything we can get, rather than bitch and moan
meanwhile in nebraska if you feed a donkey the good oats, he might move a little faster
Why aren't these being paid for with the profits from the business?
Passenger rail, in the places it's successful, is often seen as a service rather than a profitable private business. Similar to the mail, or the billions of dollars that go towards car infrastructure.
The question shouldn't be "why aren't the private entities paying for it" but rather "why do private industries own this?". Look at the UK: they famously privatized their rail network and it's gone to shit ever since.
That makes way more sense. If it needs government money to stay afloat, it should be owned by the government.
That way the only people getting paid are the ones doing the work, not the ones who 'own' the business.
Puffy vest under suit jacket is my favourite new look.
YAY trains!
Indeed, yay trains, and I unironically also like that look. In the thumbnail I thought it was a sweater at first. It says I'm the President, but I'm here to work. Rail--any rail--would be a significant improvement in American infrastructure in so many places. I don't live anywhere near the NE, but I know it has to succeed for there to be hope for the rest of us in my lifetime.
Not normally a big Biden fan, but honestly the patagonia under a jacket is a good look. We should be writing this down.
Woah are we getting some PR marketing on Lemmy for politicians lol that was fast
(OK that's just in reference to "perhaps the nation's biggest amtrak fan!" Just lol)
This is good. Maybe this will lead to the new Acela finally entering service.
They were supposed to enter service in 2021, but they have been in storage all over the north east until Alstom (the manufacturer) is able to fix the hydraulic, and computer issues, along with the outdated infrastructure on the corridor.
I have 2 brand new Acela train sets sitting in the freight yard of my home town. They've been there for over 2 months now. I like seeing them, but, they should be running by now.
Yo where that slime mold map at?
Terrible plan. from an expert in rails: https://mastodon.social/users/Alon/statuses/111363609554111161
Expert? He says that those are 'things that go against future high-speed rail'. There's no future high-speed rail in USA. Not unless he's talking about year 5000. Stopping investment because it goes against projects that USA is simply unable to build doesn't make much sense.
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.