Why Passenger Train Manufacturing Is Booming In The U.S

"Passenger rail doesn't have to be profitable, that's ridiculous. It's a public service." is such an important statement to make. It's a service you pay to have. No one asks highways to be profitable.

It would seriously be nice for the US to step up on convenient train travel. The airlines are pushing against it because they know that if people can choose to ride in quiet, roomy, fast trains, they can kiss their little sloppy, crammed in, overbooking monopoly goodbye.

I recently returned from Europe. We rode several thousand miles on trains while there. Switzerland was by far the most impressive of the networks, but all were vastly superior to the US. I think anyone who has been able to experience their rail network would want the same for the US. Trains are clean, safe, very reliable, very well connected, frequent and FAST. Riding the TGV between Paris and Zurich was probably a little bit slower overall than flying but was a vastly superior experience to flying and well worth the extra hour or so total in increased travel time. The younger generations are on board with transit. I expect the next 20 years to see a massive increase in demand for intercity rail and public transport. It will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more trains we have, the more people that ride them and the more people realize we were stupid to wait this long to not build more.

Retired airline VP... Over decades, I spent a great deal of time in Switzerland and France. To me, the ability to take a clean, fast and reliable train is a luxury that many Americans may never know.

US should focus on implementing way more public transportation.

People need to learn that adding lanes will only make traffic worse. We need to invest more in public transit than highways and roads.

Staring at the congested freeways from my train seat is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world.

We just got a light rail line here in Seattle and it's been absolute godsend. Love just gliding past the I-5 gridlock

When train travel went into decline in the U.S between the 60s and 80s, so did train manufacturing. Glad to see both are beginning to make a comeback.

An LA to Vegas express train would be an absolute game changer, as long as it runs on a dedicated right-of-way. I really hope they succeed in that project.

As a lifelong rail fan living in a town that lost its passenger trains in the 60's, I'm excited for this.

Great to see the US investing in railways. They are often a better solution to cars and planes.

As someone who has used Amtrak many times and traveled to countries like Japan and Taiwan and tried their train network, the recent increase in interest in passenger rail in the US is heartening. There are so many areas and city pairs where high-speed rail - heck, even just a reliable, decently-fast rail line - would make absolute sense that it's laughable we don't have such systems already. Brightline West between LA and Vegas is just one example.

There's one thing people need to remember when they want to say trains can't work in this country: it's that trains BUILT this country. Before cars, trains were the backbone of American transportation, and they are absolutely capable of being a legitimate transportation option if we had the will to make it happen. Many cities in this country, like Atlanta, Chicago, or Denver, are railroad cities. They grew to what they are today because of railroads. It was also common for towns to be built along railroad lines throughout the 19th century. These railway towns are responsible for much of the development in Middle America. Without trains, the middle of this country would likely have remained underdeveloped compared to the coasts.

In college, I had to use Amtrak to go home once or twice because my car was pretty crappy. I had to ask a friend to drive me 20 minutes on the highway to the station, the train was late picking me up and late dropping me off, and the price for a ticket was probably a little greater than the price for the amount of gas it takes to drive home. But despite all those negatives, taking the train was still a very nice change of pace and if it was more convenient in any way or cheaper, I would have absolutely taken the train more often to visit my parents even if I still had the choice to drive. I loved relaxing in a comfortable seat and not having to fight traffic on the interstate.

“It doesn’t have to be profitable, it’s transportation, it’s public service” amen brother

Public transportation will transform this country into something way better

One important manufacturer they missed out on was Stadler. They have huge orders with MARTA, Caltrain, Dart and also come Canadian agencies and their factory in Salt lake city is absolutely massive with a lot of unique attributes in their trains. Overall a majority of major transit systems in the US are renovating their rolling stock which will take us into the future. In the next 5 to 10 years we are going to see a massive explosion of transit systems around the country as younger people are priced out of affordable cars and clamour for more public transit as they reinvest in cities and leave suburbs. An exciting future indeed

I absolutely love this! I'm too old to enjoy train travel now, but it makes me smile to believe it's making a comeback here in America. I wish they wouldn't worry so much about speed though. I'd much rather take it easy and see where I'm going and enjoy the ride. It's also great to hear about creating jobs here so we can have a place to make a little money instead of many places to spend it. Oh I could get into this! : )

Yeah let's go!!! 🙌 This would be great for our county! The economic, safety, and convince impacts would be huge. It would also have positive impacts on cities (fewer cars, less pollution, greater mobility). I would love to see this in my lifetime!