>>All I said about trains is that it's too bad they don't compete well in
the US, and that they aren't even all that impressive under the best
conditions in the rest of the world, and I always laugh when people talk
about how great the trains are in Europe and Japan and how they wish we
could have those fast
trains in the US too but they don't get that the cities are just closer
together there and trains, even fast ones, won't work very well here.<<
More like: now that so much money has been sunk into doing things the American way (including putting trams out of business), there's no turning back. But who knows where the next lurch 'forward' will take you?
When you look at where most Americans actually live, the distances are exaggerated The advantage of trains in Japan doesn't stop with the high speed and frequent connections between key city centers. When you get off the trains, all the major cities have light rail networks of some sort. The density of the networks, on the surface, below, and above in Tokyo is simply beyond the comprehension of most Americans.
One basic fact of life when I got to Japan was that most Japanese of all walks of life just travel around their country far more than Americans do. Part of the reason is the access to inter-connected train systems that work. Ahh, if only all of Japan were as interesting as all of Europe....
I understand the US has other priorities, but cars and planes can't fully compensate for the lack of trains.
Charles Jannuzi