Don't romanticize Europe's crowded, tardy, unreliable high-speed rail

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3 points·khaled_ismaeel··4 comments

Europe's high-speed rail isn't perfect, but it's still miles ahead of what we have in the U.S. Sure, there are delays and issues, but it connects cities efficiently and offers a real alternative to flying. Instead of just criticizing, maybe we should focus on how to bring some of those benefits here.

> Instead of just criticizing, maybe we should focus on how to bring some of those benefits here

That starts with a realistic appraisal.

I was surprised to learn, recently, that New York’s Metro-North and LIRR have 95%+ on-time rates [1]. (On time is defined as less than 6 minutes late [2].) This is vastly superior to the DB’s 65% system average.

This is partly because it’s a well-built system. But it’s partly because it has to be to compete. European-style passenger rail is simply too expensive and inconvenient to work in America, given how spread out we are and our legacy investments into roads and rural airports. Instead, regional rail offers a proven success model for getting people out of their cars. (Drive-on / drive-off is also worth exploring.)

[1] https://www.metro-magazine.com/10217862/metro-north-lirr-exp...

[2] https://www.osc.ny.gov/files/reports/pdf/report-9-2025.pdf

It is somewhat strange to me that trains aren't a solved problem by now. Cheap and fast public transport for people who cant drive seems like a very good thing to me, but trains are (in my experience) often overcrowded, expensive and sometimes late. I know overcrowding is a problem on Japanese trains as well but they seem to be largely solved there otherwise

Seems like a survey of one.

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