<story><title>Spain will introduce free train travel</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-15/spain-will-introduce-free-train-travel-to-help-ease-the-cost-of-living</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>stormbrew</author><text>&amp;gt; If Amtrak went that direction and made its transportation close to free, I wonder if we&amp;#x27;d see more people try it out&lt;p&gt;My understanding is that in north America the big problem with passenger rail is less cost and more the fact that there&amp;#x27;s a bias towards freight in track right of ways. Even if you&amp;#x27;re willing and happy to pay a lot to travel by train, scheduling is still likely to be screwed up somewhere by a big ass freight train in the way and there&amp;#x27;s nothing you can do about it.&lt;p&gt;Edit to add after a double check: I guess in the US it&amp;#x27;s technically the law that passengers be given priority but it&amp;#x27;s poorly (or just not) enforced[1].&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amtrak.com&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;dam&amp;#x2F;projects&amp;#x2F;dotcom&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;public&amp;#x2F;documents&amp;#x2F;corporate&amp;#x2F;HostRailroadReports&amp;#x2F;mythbusters-enforcing-amtraks-legal-right-to-preference.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amtrak.com&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;dam&amp;#x2F;projects&amp;#x2F;dotcom&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;p...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>hardwaregeek</author><text>Free or extremely cheap transportation is a fascinating development. I always found it odd that the rhetoric around transportation was that it should make money. We don&amp;#x27;t expect other parts of the government to turn a profit. Why transportation?&lt;p&gt;If Amtrak went that direction and made its transportation close to free, I wonder if we&amp;#x27;d see more people try it out. Maybe it&amp;#x27;d gain some popularity and we could finally see a shift away from cars. Public transportation is a difficult process because until the money is spent and the line is there, people are not sold. Whereas with cars, even if a highway is not built, people still have a car by default. Therefore the government needs to float money, either in infrastructure or in subsidized fares. At least subsidized fares is a little less binary than infrastructure.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>itronitron</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve ridden Amtrak a few times on different routes, TX to CA as a child, midwest to DC as a student, and northeast to southeast (NE corridor +) with a pregnant wife.&lt;p&gt;The main issue with train travel in the US is that many passengers are going to need a car when they reach their destination.&lt;p&gt;If I could pick one major rail investment for the US it would be to follow I-95 from Florida to New England. There is a lot of commute and vacation traffic along that interstate (I-95) that can be stressful and people would probably happily move over to Amtrak if the service guarantees are good.</text></comment>
<story><title>Spain will introduce free train travel</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-15/spain-will-introduce-free-train-travel-to-help-ease-the-cost-of-living</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>stormbrew</author><text>&amp;gt; If Amtrak went that direction and made its transportation close to free, I wonder if we&amp;#x27;d see more people try it out&lt;p&gt;My understanding is that in north America the big problem with passenger rail is less cost and more the fact that there&amp;#x27;s a bias towards freight in track right of ways. Even if you&amp;#x27;re willing and happy to pay a lot to travel by train, scheduling is still likely to be screwed up somewhere by a big ass freight train in the way and there&amp;#x27;s nothing you can do about it.&lt;p&gt;Edit to add after a double check: I guess in the US it&amp;#x27;s technically the law that passengers be given priority but it&amp;#x27;s poorly (or just not) enforced[1].&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amtrak.com&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;dam&amp;#x2F;projects&amp;#x2F;dotcom&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;public&amp;#x2F;documents&amp;#x2F;corporate&amp;#x2F;HostRailroadReports&amp;#x2F;mythbusters-enforcing-amtraks-legal-right-to-preference.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amtrak.com&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;dam&amp;#x2F;projects&amp;#x2F;dotcom&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;p...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>hardwaregeek</author><text>Free or extremely cheap transportation is a fascinating development. I always found it odd that the rhetoric around transportation was that it should make money. We don&amp;#x27;t expect other parts of the government to turn a profit. Why transportation?&lt;p&gt;If Amtrak went that direction and made its transportation close to free, I wonder if we&amp;#x27;d see more people try it out. Maybe it&amp;#x27;d gain some popularity and we could finally see a shift away from cars. Public transportation is a difficult process because until the money is spent and the line is there, people are not sold. Whereas with cars, even if a highway is not built, people still have a car by default. Therefore the government needs to float money, either in infrastructure or in subsidized fares. At least subsidized fares is a little less binary than infrastructure.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bogomipz</author><text>That bias is correct, at least outside of the North East corridor. Amtrak owns most of the track in the North East Corridor which incidentally is the only place it is profitable. Outside of this corridor the tracks are mostly owned by 5 railroads [1]. Passenger rail is supposed to have priority as Amtrak was the entity created in order to relieve railroads from being required to provide passenger service. This however is an area of a lot of friction. For a recent example of this mess see&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;transportation&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;amtrak-expansion-freight-rails&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;transportation&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;amt...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;soundingmaps.com&amp;#x2F;the-largest-railroads-in-us&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;soundingmaps.com&amp;#x2F;the-largest-railroads-in-us&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>