All?

Probably, at least by custom if not law.

I guess an awful lot of in the US / places were segregation existed, and that economic factors made segregation de facto in other places. But is this is a warning against idealizing rail travel in the 1930s? Cause I don't, just responding to the population density argument re: US/Euro rail.

And by "economic factors" I mean racist disparities in wages / job availability that existed even in relatively integrated places, meaning you were not likely to see any PoC in a 1st class carriage.

It’s a rhetorical question, because my point isn’t about idealizing ‘30s rail, it’s about looking at the racism behind why we don’t have the same rail coverage that we did then. Once the law of the land allowed Black people into white spaces, those spaces were made deliberately worse.

By white people, I have to add. BART (the Bay Area rail) doesn’t go very far down the peninsula because the rich white folks who live there don’t want Black folks from Oakland to have access. It’s the same logic that saw white folks cement up public pools, so Black folks couldn’t use them.

Anyway, it seems like every time we have this discussion about European trains vs the US, people leave out the fact that racism is a large part of why we can’t have nice things in the US. And yes I know Europe is racist, but there’s a vast difference between the way it manifests.