Meanwhile, we're stuck with a ruling party that is absolutely against anything involving steel tracks, so we have to spend similar amounts just to maintain our roads.
Steel tracks are doing just fine in the US, thank you very much, with minimal governmental involvement. Our rail system is the envy of the world, and has been getting new investment to the tune of $25 billion a year of late. This is why Berkshire Hathaway bought BNSF, so they could have a place to reinvest billions of dollars of profit and earn a return.
All freight rail, of course.
Mind you, regulatory creep threatens this. The FRA has been pushing for "safety" rules which are basically handouts to labor unions (requiring extra headcount per train), and Positive Train Control's top-down bureaucracy-driven technology-solutioning has been a comedy of errors, but the real threat they're facing is the potential of a mandate to make all freight trains make way for passenger trains. which no one will use.
If anything, the Trump administration will be much better for steel rails than the past eight years. Still freight rails, of course. But unlike theoretical passenger rail proposals, these ones are already popular and profitable and reducing carbon emissions.
The USA isn't the envy of the world for anything these days. Only Americans think that. Nobody envies you for anything, not even Silicon Valley, with the housing crisis and poverty surrounding it.
http://business.time.com/2012/07/09/us-freight-railroads/ - "US Freight Railroads are the Envy of the World"
But if you don't trust the Americans let's ask the Brits.
http://www.economist.com/node/16636101 (The Economist) - "America’s system of rail freight is the world’s best" and "They are universally recognized in the industry as the best in the world."
It's a fact generally acknowledged. I'd find you more variety but it's harder to get detailed Asian and European perspectives in English, you know?
That said, I sure hope no one envies Silicon Valley. An individual facet of it like the jobs or the climate, maybe...
As for the best of the best, I just kinda think Deutsche Bahn has us beat. And Japan. And Switzerland ...
https://www.amtrak.com/national-facts
Amtrak then overpays for this use which amounts to a government subsidy.
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060015115
We subsidize rail (freight+passenger) just as we subsidize airlines. Let's just be honest about it.
BTW, your notion of the FRA over-regulating for unions is similarly malarkey. And envy of the world? Dunno if you've been to Europe (which is heavily regulated).
I live in Europe right now, thank you.
European (freight) rail falls apart the moment you cross any internal border: differences in train control systems, electrification standards, signalling systems, loading gauges, and the like. France, Spain, and Germany alone have four different electrification systems among them.
> We subsidize rail (freight+passenger) just as we subsidize airlines. Let's just be honest about it.
Sure. Is this actually a point of contention? It'd be great if we could stop, anyway, and let various forms of transportation compete on true merit rather than on which one the politicians prefer. Especially for freight. There are various barriers to this happening, naturally. It'd be great if they could be reduced and any externalities mitigated.
And the subsidies don't nearly approach the ~$25B/yr new investment.
> BTW, your notion of the FRA over-regulating for unions is similarly malarkey.
I refer you to 81 FR 13917, in which the agency itself admits in the filing, "FRA has no empirical evidence to suggest" that two-person crews are safer, admitting that "in fact, it is possible that one-person crews have contributed to the improving safety record".
That's just a tiny piece of what they get to deal with, anyway.
Then I don't know if you've lived in the US. I've lived and worked both places.
As for 81 FR 13917, you're mis-summarizing your source.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/03/15/2016-05...
Indeed, the previous sentence was:
Finally, railroads have achieved an improving safety record
during a period in which the industry largely employed
two-person train crews.
Basically, you sound anti-labor and anti-regulation. Just say it.
BTW, outside of Spain's Iberian gauge, I'm not aware of any inter-country freight problems.
Loading gauge, not track gauge. Here in Britain, Network Rail's standard W6a gauge is too small for standard shipping containers on standard cars. You need to get up to W8 for that, and W10 for High-Cube. They have that on certain corridors only. You can use special low-deck cars to get around it, of course, though those are heavier and more expensive to own and operate.
Meanwhile in the US, all that investment cash has made double-stacked container transport the norm rather than the exception. Do not expect to see it in Europe in either of our lifetimes.
Amtrak then overpays for this use which amounts to a government
subsidy.
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060015115
FTA: Amtrak wasn't formally reviewing invoices, some of the alleged over-payments lack supporting documentation, and in general, it sounds like there's STILL disagreement over contract language.
If anything, the taxpayers subsidized management negligence.
FTA:
"At the end of 2015, China had 121,000 kilometers of railway lines,
including 19,000 kilometers of high-speed tracks, according to a
transportation white paper issued Thursday. The U.S. had 228,218 kilometers
of rail lines as of 2014, according to latest available data from the World
Bank."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amtrak
I think the US officially has 26 miles of HSR. China transports 1.1 billion people a year on HSR. Amtrak carries about 30 million people a year. Why don't more people take Amtrak? It's faster to drive.
I was addressing "against anything involving steel tracks."
http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/263782-obama-high-s...
"His stimulus offer was rebuffed by Republican governors in states including Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida, who rejected the money."