The best takes on this are all the other Americans going “um planes exist” and “um trains can’t go that fast wtf”

Babes they have this in like every other developed country we are literally the only ones with our fingers up our ass like this.

Lobbyists.

Big Auto and Big Oil are why we can’t have this.

I was irritated at the resolution so I looked for a better quality, idk if tumblr was just deteriorating it tho, so here

Link to full size map | Guardian article | Slate article | Business Insider article

This map was created by Alfred Twu in 2013. Here’s his twitter.

These articles mention some information about the implementation of a high speed rail system in the United States. To sum it up:

• it would connect rural and urban, and regional, societies
• it would improve long-distance relationships and familial relationships
• it’s cost-efficient
• it could prove economically beneficial to smaller cities
• we’d be saving fuel

This is the pre-existing Amtrak route map (and the pdf):

Amtrak travels at an average of 71 mph with maximum speeds of 150 mph. A trip from New York to Los Angeles could range anywhere from $350 - $1300 and it would take roughly 3 days.

The one proposed by Twu would travel at 220 mph and take 18 hours to get from New York to Los Angeles. Bullet trains average at 320 kph, which converts to about 200 mph. Test runs have gone up to a 375 mph.

This isn’t the first proposition for a new national high speed rail either. In 2009, the Obama administration proposed one but it was shot down by Republicans. Here’s the map:

And here’s an explanation by Vox as to why this wasn’t the best plan.

And here are some more route examples:

And yes, Big Auto and Big Oil are exactly why we can’t have this. Here’s a 24 minute breakdown by Hasan Minhaj on Patriot Act.

And this is why we say that capitalism stifles innovation.

Ah yes let’s completely ignore those of us in the great north and northwest area. I suspect it has something to do with mountains but ofc it’s big cities that get all the attention 🤷‍♀️ and fuck the rest of us

One of those maps have rail going to the west. And we have to start somewhere. The high speed rail coincides with existing railways and interstate highways. It’s probably cheaper to update existing railways than build them from scratch.

I live in Switzerland, which has an excellent rail service (even though we like to complain about it a lot. There are issues, but those are mostly due to the high demand). Of course, Switzerland is -tiny- compared to the US, but the basic idea works for big and smaller countries.

You have the big lines that connect the cities and only stop in the most important places. Those aren’t all just the biggest cities, but also towns where lots of railways meet. Then you have the lines that stop more often, 2-3 times in all cities it passes through, all towns at least once, most villages. And then you have the regional lines. These stop at pretty much every stop, no matter how small. My town is not very big, ~30′000 inhabitants, and we have, like 6 train stops for the small regional lines. These usually also connect the smaller villages with the bigger ones and towns. They are the slowest, of course, but often still faster than busses, which connect places on an even more granular level.

The main idea here is, that these are probably the big lines, the highspeed trains on those proposed maps, connecting the spots with the biggest demand. The rest could be filled up with smaller, not-as-fast-but-still-fast lines and, possibly, even highspeed lines later on.

It’s like a big container that you fill up with rocks. Then you add smaller stones to fill the spaces in between and then you add sand to really fill every nook and cranny.

This is true. All of the high speed rail stops at a metropolitan area and meets an existing Amtrak line.