Comments by "Evan" (@MrEvanfriend) on "Why Trains Suck in America" video.

  1. All trains are shitty, but we don't have as many of them in America because there isn't a market for them. People here drive, because driving is more convenient in every way, and unlike Europe, it's affordable. I live in the Philadelphia area, and frequently travel to the New York area where I have family and friends. To take a train from Philly to New York takes about three hours, and then requires taking a bus on either end of the trip. Taking my truck costs less, is quicker, gets me right to where I'm going, and avoids getting stuck in with the kind of cretins who take trains, and usually do their best to make it an even more miserable experience by making a racket. So yeah, you have extortionate taxes that pay for "nice" trains, but we get to keep our hard earned money, and can afford to drive. Looks like another thing Europeans will act snobbishly about when it turns out they have it far worse.
    1
  2. Because it's the status quo. Europeans like trains because they're used to them, just like people everywhere like what they know. Also, Europeans aren't exactly known for voting for what's in their best interest. You know, the EU, mass immigration, increasingly restrictive laws about speech, government running of everything, etc. The fact that your alternative to trains was "government subsidized auto travel" really explains a lot. The best option would be government subsidizing neither and the market working it out.
    1
  3. We don't have "great" trains in this country because we have decent quality of life and can afford our own vehicles. Taking a train from Philadelphia to New York is a real nuisance. It takes about three hours, and it's often packed with people, who often spend their time on the train misbehaving to their best ability, shouting and generally being inconsiderate cretins. It costs about $24. Or, I could drive. It costs about the same - and I drive a truck that doesn't get great gas mileage - but I'm in my own vehicle, if I want to listen to music or whatever, I can, and I don't have to hear anyone else's, and if I need to take a piss or get a bottle of water or whatever on the way, I can do so no problem. I don't have to sit next to someone with questionable hygiene, I don't have to hear the banal conversations of boring people....there are no real disadvantages. And, the drive takes about two hours, barring heavy traffic, which I can usually avoid. That's an hour LESS than the train. France and Germany have "great" trains because gas in absurdly expensive and people can't afford to drive. If Europeans owned vehicles at anything near the rate Americans do, they'd ditch trains too.
    1
  4. EnjoyFirefighting - International Emergency Response Videos In Germany? Germany is a very small country compared to the US, and significantly more densely populated. Of course trains go everywhere, there are a lot fewer places to go to. Also, gas is absurdly expensive there. I haven't been to Germany in a while, but last time I was there, gas cost the same per liter that it did per gallon (slightly less than four liters) in the US. If I had to pay 4x what I do for gas here, I'd probably take a train too. Here, the trains mostly don't have bathrooms or food for sale, and assuming normal traffic, they take longer, and they rarely put you within walking distance of anything. If I want to go from Philadelphia to New York, it's over four hours by train vs about two hours driving. And when I drive, there's no screeching lowlives that are standard on any train in the US. Trains and buses in the US are only useful for commuting from suburbs to cities, and not even always in that case. When I visit friends and family from out of state, or go to my plot of land in rural upstate NY, driving is the only realistic option.
    1