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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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You'd think. But the truth is throughout the West and Midwest, almost every town has or has had a rail line.
So what's gone wrong? Pretty much the same thing that's gone wrong with America in general, big corporations realized shipping to big cities is way more profitable than carrying passengers from small towns. Particularly because most people prefer a car over the train.
We have a ton of dead rail lines just waiting to be revitalized.
So what's the solution to revamp and restore them? I've seen tons of abandoned rail lines, usually rusted to uselessness and even paved over for "walking trails". California has a hard enough time just extending BART a single mile.
The same solution to our current one with frequent potholes and congestion issues on our highway system; constant maintenance and attention.
I'm not going to delude myself into saying we gather 5 plucky volunteers to knock weeds off the rails and they're set for a decade. But the costs are ultimately being compared to what the whole country needs to spend for its cars to continue being useful.
I can't even totally complain about towns making rail trails instead - having some kind of viable walking path is also a good change.