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They do a pretty good job of getting you very close in London and NYC. Longer distance trains get you between cities much faster than in a car. They don't solve everything but they are definitely underutilized as a solution in the US.

We could put effort into making them better but it's not as sexy.

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Metro service is the key. When frequencies get high enough the timetable exists only for the benefit of the operations personnel, customers don't care about it because their experience is like with an elevator. You don't ask for a timetable for the elevator, you just go to the place where elevators arrive, and wait, and very shortly there will be an elevator.

Very high densities are both the problem and the solution. They're the problem because under very high density private car ownership is infeasible, and the solution because public transport becomes fast and affordable. If you let it.

Frankly I think commuter rail for suburban riders is great and I think there should be more of it too. Who the hell likes driving to work during rush hour?

Exactly. A lot of the issues with public transportation are because we underfund the systems and they end up seeming worse than they could be. The complaints that users have are not with the concept of trains or busses but with the failures, which can be minimized with adequate investment.

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