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Comment by sourcecodeplz | Hacker News Reader

What in the US seems like something fun you could do one summer, in the rest of the world trains are used heavily daily by commuters and others.

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We have lots of commuter trains near large cities in the US. Many people who work in NYC, Chicago, Washington DC, and the like take commuter trains into and out of these cities from surrounding towns and cities. The issue is outside these big metro centers, most of the US isn't as densely populated to make this feasible.

I think by international standards the idea that American cities usually have trains is not right. Basically there are five urban agglomerations with useful train service in America and the other cities have one train a day (that may depart at 2am) or, usually, no trains. Can you get from Dallas to Tulsa by train? Absolutely not. But a city the population of Tulsa would have several trains per hour if it was in Switzerland or France or Japan.

The real situation is closer to "none" than "lots".

No, this is not a commuter train.

And by “the rest of world” you mean Europe and parts of Asia?

I suppose Latin America doesn’t exist? Maybe they’re evolved enough to be considered real people? What about Africa? Also still not human?

Two trains I've taken recently: Mexico's Tren Maya and Kenya's Nairobi to Mombasa are both probably better than anything the US has built in decades.

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