Yup. Population density in Europe is much higher. England (not the UK, just England) is roughly the size of Ohio, and it has five times the population. Germany (83 million) is roughly the same size as Montana (1.1 million).
Replies
Morocco has high speed rail. It's population density is lower than Ohio.
sep 1, 2025, 5:57 am • 2 0 • view
Wow, this numbers are wild. Never really thought about it.
sep 1, 2025, 12:20 am • 0 0 • view
Someone with a lot of money would see this as an opportunity to depress the overall economy and make it a buy. This system is flawed.
sep 1, 2025, 12:55 am • 1 0 • view
It’s not just population density, it’s political will (both elected officials & voters). I live 3 miles outside Boston in the most densely popped city in New England. During rush hour, it’s faster to *walk* the 3 miles to my office downtown than to take public transit, bc of decades of underfunding.
sep 1, 2025, 1:32 am • 12 0 • view
lol...of course it possible...we did it it just doesnt serve the purposes of those who hole the purse strings the buses are gone for the same reason a train could easily be built along the old greyhound routes
sep 1, 2025, 3:26 am • 3 0 • view
Except that we used to have one. Back in circa 1940 you could get from almost anywhere to anywhere. Small towns were all connected by rail to each other and to the big cities.
sep 1, 2025, 12:22 am • 27 0 • view
And in the '50's, America went on to build highways streatching across the nation, built dams and built electrical lines out to rural areas, and had endpoint-to-endpoint copper landlines for communication. All with less resources than today.
sep 1, 2025, 2:15 am • 1 0 • view
Now, chanting American exceptionalism all the while, American excuse lack of high speed rail, lack of last mile phone and electricity (even within high-rent urban areas), and degrading infrastructure on "America is 'too big'" to do any of that. American 'can do' got up and left about the Reagan Pres
sep 1, 2025, 2:15 am • 3 0 • view
For some value of "you," anyway. Plessy v. Ferguson, the case that established the "separate but equal" decision legalizing racial segregation and legitimizing Jim Crow, was brought because a Black man boarded a whites only car. *taps sign* The problem with infrastructure in the US is racism.
sep 1, 2025, 10:00 am • 4 1 • view
Watch movies from like 1950 and people were hopping trains for short trips like that.
sep 1, 2025, 12:48 pm • 0 0 • view
Look at the difference in air travel between 1940 and 2025.
sep 1, 2025, 4:25 pm • 0 0 • view
My great-great-grandmother owned a hotel in the Midwest that was full most nights through the 1920s because of rail traffic, even though the town around her had a population of only 800. Now that rail line mostly carries corn, beans, and coal - and all the stations have been torn down.
sep 1, 2025, 4:14 am • 14 0 • view
Sad. We just get cars and clogged highways now.
sep 1, 2025, 5:06 am • 1 0 • view
In 1930, the US had over 250,000 miles of rail connecting every city. The US also had a significantly lower population density. In 2022 it was about 93,000 miles of rail, slightly less than it was in 1880.
sep 1, 2025, 3:47 am • 28 5 • view
The Western US settlement pattern, west of where the farms give out, was literally built by the railways. Now a different question is whether they ever were profitable... but neither are the highways and interstates.
sep 1, 2025, 7:14 am • 5 0 • view
England is on the high side, density wise. OH's population density is slightly higher than Spain's. The real issue is the density of the *places people are going* - car centric / suburban in OH; dense, walkable therefore, with good transit in Spain.
sep 1, 2025, 1:06 am • 0 0 • view
Here's a rail map of a country slightly less dense than OH. It's about priorities.
sep 1, 2025, 1:59 am • 4 0 • view
A high speed rail systems built from the midwest to the west coast would serve a lot. Say a southern route from NO or DFW to LA and a northern route CHI to SEA/POR would fix a lot of the issues. East of the Miss. is ripe for building a high speed network as it's densely populated in comparison. 🚄
sep 1, 2025, 1:31 pm • 0 0 • view
I think this is more of an argument for planning at the appropriate regional level rather than centrally. No one suggests that the lessons from building, say, the modern Swiss rail network - or any single small to medium country’s- would translate 1:1. Consortia of states could achieve tons tho.
sep 1, 2025, 12:12 am • 4 0 • view
Counterpoint: the government can and does subsidize remote parts of the United States to the tune of billions of dollars on a regular basis. Why else would Minot North Dakota exist.
sep 1, 2025, 1:00 am • 0 0 • view
Also, the only thing stopping high speed rail on the Eastern seaboard and the western coast is political will. The legal apparatus for seizing private property is called eminent domain and it's built into the system
sep 1, 2025, 1:02 am • 1 0 • view
At one time the USA had major passenger rail service. One site lists 'The schedules list over 750 daily trains, serving over 1000 cities and many small towns.;. travelbyrail1950.com And as another poster mentioned, the USA has a vast freight rail network, any of which could carry passengers.
sep 1, 2025, 1:00 am • 6 0 • view
I grew up in Wyoming, which has 97,813 square miles. Great Britain (all of it, not merely England) has 94,058 square miles. Wyoming has about 600,000 people. Great Britain has about 60,000,000 people. People in either place have a REALLY hard time visualizing what the other one is like.
sep 1, 2025, 4:11 am • 3 0 • view
I think if we stopped subsidizing fossil fuels and domestic air travel and spent that money on public services including rail we could probably make it feasible.
sep 1, 2025, 12:59 am • 10 0 • view
Exactly. Stop subsidizing fossil fuels and redirect that money into nuclear. It delivers decades of clean energy without constant taxpayer bailouts.
sep 1, 2025, 9:25 am • 0 0 • view
So, how can ya’ll both be sooooo empty and so scared more people wanna live there?
sep 1, 2025, 6:35 pm • 0 0 • view
A highspeed train across the US would be fun, though. You could really push the speeds. Something that's hard to do in Europe. The ICE currently does something like 180-200 mph regularly. Same with the TGV. I think the TGV holds the record with 350 mph. Unless the Chinese beat it.
sep 1, 2025, 12:00 am • 5 0 • view
Americans are always surprised when I tell them I can see the next town from my window and hear the church bells. I've also walked there more than once. It's about two miles.
aug 31, 2025, 11:52 pm • 3 1 • view
Crazy! I live on the “dense” east coast of the US, 10 minutes drive from a city of 300,000 people, but I can walk 2 miles from my front door without leaving the woods or crossing a road. Density is very unevenly distributed here.
sep 1, 2025, 12:52 am • 0 0 • view
Here too. There are areas, especially in Eastern Germany, that are less densely populated. Or if I cross over into France, you immediately notice the difference. Less dense, smaller villages and towns.
sep 1, 2025, 9:02 pm • 1 0 • view
Two miles is the end of my road. And it's considered a short road!
sep 1, 2025, 12:21 am • 1 1 • view
And this is rural Germany! It's a nice stroll through the corn and rye fields.
sep 1, 2025, 12:42 am • 3 0 • view
Europeans visiting Canada routinely want to do things like do a day drive from Toronto to Banff. Which is about 2100 miles. One way.
sep 1, 2025, 11:44 pm • 0 0 • view
This doesn’t explain China
sep 1, 2025, 1:10 am • 1 0 • view
Sweden is the size California with the population of NJ and has much better trains than either.
sep 1, 2025, 1:23 am • 1 0 • view
Sweden is the size of California with a population size and population density of Minnesota+Wisconsin — and yet Sweden indeed has much better commuter rail service.
sep 1, 2025, 4:33 am • 1 0 • view
I would rather stay home than fly or take a Greyhound actually, I do stay home rather than fly or take a bus. As far as the train goes, since it takes me hours to just reach a train station it hardly seems unreasonable to just keep driving to wherever I want to go.
sep 1, 2025, 2:08 am • 2 0 • view
While this is true, that didn't stop us from building an interstate highway system.
sep 1, 2025, 12:20 am • 2 0 • view
Wasn't that originally to move large quantities of military gear across the country? IIRC, that's why it was a Federal, not just state and regional, priority, and why the Feds are involved in funding it. If our fed govt's priority was serving its citizens, rail would be quite possible, but: HA!
sep 1, 2025, 12:24 am • 8 0 • view
you are entirely correct.
sep 1, 2025, 12:27 am • 0 0 • view
Reminds me of the (maybe apocryphal, I'm not sure) story about how the Space Shuttle SRBs were smaller than they were originally designed because they had to go through a train tunnel from their manufacturing site in Utah.
sep 1, 2025, 12:35 am • 2 0 • view
That's a bit of a myth tho. Building better rail in population areas in the US is very doable, and building it between those is also very doable. It's about will and political power (which auto industry has).
aug 31, 2025, 11:49 pm • 38 0 • view
All you have to do is nationalize the freight lines. Simple!
sep 1, 2025, 12:27 am • 0 0 • view
The perfect has often been the enemy of the good when it comes to better transit in the US, alas
aug 31, 2025, 11:50 pm • 6 0 • view
Specifically, which the auto industry had when it bought up a lot of the US's commuter train infrastructure in places like SF and LA, and then let it go bankrupt, and then sold off right-of-way which prevents restarting train service in many places. But also for funding in general.
aug 31, 2025, 11:56 pm • 7 0 • view
building it wouldn’t be as hard as many people think but maintaining it absolutely would
aug 31, 2025, 11:53 pm • 22 0 • view
Midwest is peak case for buildable rail in the us. Lots of medium and large cities. Lots of agricultural land in between. Flat. Also the rights of way are mostly already there.
sep 1, 2025, 1:08 am • 3 0 • view
I am from Minnesota originally and live in NYC. I am extremely pro rail lines across the country and am begging coastal people to stop thinking that “empty” ag land in between means easy construction
sep 1, 2025, 1:11 am • 4 0 • view
But certainly easier than through endless suburbs where rights of way do not exist.
sep 1, 2025, 1:18 am • 0 0 • view
I am still pro trains!!! Across the entire US pls!! but the upkeep problems (not even cost) are considerable.
aug 31, 2025, 11:55 pm • 18 0 • view
For sure, but maintaining giant highways isn't cheap either.
sep 1, 2025, 12:02 am • 16 0 • view
See, this is the trick - they don't maintain that infrastructure properly, so it actually IS cheap!
sep 1, 2025, 7:08 am • 1 0 • view
The Western US had a very viable passenger rail system at one point. You could take trains to most towns and cities. You could, for instance, take the train from Tombstone to Tucson and back again a couple times a day. Moost of those tracks have been torn out .
sep 1, 2025, 12:01 am • 5 0 • view
Yes. In 1930, the US had 250,000 miles of rail connecting every city. In 2022, it had about 90,000, mostly freight... it had more rail in 1880.
sep 1, 2025, 3:51 am • 2 0 • view
Though like a number of countries in Europe we have actually contracted our rail network from its fullest extent in the 1940s and 1950s
aug 31, 2025, 11:45 pm • 13 2 • view
Poland's fullest extent was in 1989 and it contracted hugely in the 90s and 00s, although some previously abandoned connections are now being restored
sep 1, 2025, 12:21 am • 2 0 • view
Poland is also investing in light rail in some cities. Kraków built a lot of stations in the city and on the outskirts in the last decade. On some routes the commute time is a quarter of what it would take by bus/tram, and half of what it would take by car.
sep 1, 2025, 7:39 am • 3 0 • view
Peak year for railroad mileage in the US: 1919
aug 31, 2025, 11:53 pm • 9 1 • view
I guess we'll just keep using Coal, F-350s, and Jumbo Jets. USA destiny is to fail economically and enviromentally. Can't be avoided. Also, lets go to war with Europe because they won't buy our coal and oil.
aug 31, 2025, 11:52 pm • 3 0 • view
The eastern US network used to end in Iowa. The whole Pacific expansion took it from Iowa to San Francisco. We weren't terribly populated then. We just fell in love with the car.
sep 1, 2025, 2:18 pm • 2 0 • view
We could easily have high-speed rail all the way down both coasts. And a few connecting through the midwest, CO, and TX If it was a priority. The Coasts would basically pay back quick though
sep 1, 2025, 4:08 am • 2 0 • view
People from Wyoming side eye
sep 1, 2025, 2:43 am • 0 0 • view
I really hate the whole "passenger rail can't work in the US because it's so vast" argument. We had passenger rail until about the 1970s. Cars were advertised as freedom and we bought in. So much so whole areas of this country are intentionally built around the need of a car. It sucks.
sep 1, 2025, 12:45 am • 13 0 • view
Yeah. The best argument I've seen is that there are a LOT of preexisting rail lines. It doesn't change the original point. Passenger rail in the US isn't currently an option for most travel. www.frrandp.com/p/the-map.ht...
sep 1, 2025, 3:14 am • 5 0 • view
The Biden administration did try to make some improvements/expansion. Unfortunately, the current administration would privatize all roads and sidewalks if it could. railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.do...
sep 1, 2025, 3:14 am • 4 0 • view
We had an old rail line running the length of my country. The right of way for that defunct line is now an extremely popular bike trail. It's not getting converted back.
sep 1, 2025, 5:03 am • 2 0 • view
country = county I don't know if my brain glitched or the spell checker did. No, there is NOT a dedicated bike trail running the length of the US. Err, at least not that I know of. (It was a walk and bike trail until the e-bike hordes showed up. Greenhorns go too damn fast. Dangerous. *grumbles*)
sep 1, 2025, 5:44 am • 1 0 • view
I'm trying to imagine that many people living out here, where there isn't much water....
sep 1, 2025, 12:44 am • 1 0 • view
Building a network of similar density would not make sense, true. But the US is PERFECT for building local short-distance networks (something that you already have around Boston/DC area, I think), and connecting the hubs with high speed lines.
sep 1, 2025, 7:06 am • 2 0 • view
Local networks would 100% be profitable, and subsidizing the high speed network makes 1000 times more sense than adding to the already grotesque car infrastructure.
sep 1, 2025, 7:06 am • 1 0 • view
U.K.....Beeching....
sep 1, 2025, 7:58 am • 0 0 • view
We build roads and somewhat maintain them all the time, a railway lasts longer and is easier to maintain.
sep 1, 2025, 10:39 pm • 0 0 • view
China's an autocracy. If they decide a rail line is going to run through your town & the folks in this apartment block need to move to another to make way for it, that's what's going to happen. I can't say that wouldn't be the end result in the US but there'd be a LOT more law suits involved first.
sep 1, 2025, 5:16 am • 0 0 • view
China is also much much more densely populated than the US.
sep 1, 2025, 12:07 am • 6 0 • view
I bet you could improve US density with the power of trains. 🤔
sep 1, 2025, 12:20 am • 11 0 • view
And, of course, there's the issues of scale. bsky.app/profile/beck...
aug 31, 2025, 11:45 pm • 17 0 • view
We don't need decent trains from Seattle to Miami, just like Europe doesn't need (or have!) them from London to Istanbul We need them in the 50-500 mile range.
sep 1, 2025, 1:10 am • 2 0 • view
bsky.app/profile/seat...
sep 1, 2025, 9:04 am • 0 0 • view
Seattle to Miami is also possible with only two trains each way. But they each take 46 hours.
sep 1, 2025, 1:44 pm • 0 0 • view
They always act like 90% of trips Americans take are from Miami to Chicago, or from Boston to Seattle. I COULD take a train from Warsaw to Madrid, but 99% of trips are within 500 miles. At that distance I can go almost anywhere by train. I'm literally doing a Stockholm - Oslo - Bergen trip soon.
sep 1, 2025, 7:33 am • 0 0 • view
Unclear what the OP’s point is, though. It’s a huge land mass…and it’s awash in Wal-Marts, Bud Light, and ranch dressing from coast to coast.
aug 31, 2025, 11:58 pm • 9 0 • view
Well, at least we know *you're* Definitely Not Racist. /s
sep 1, 2025, 12:57 am • 0 0 • view
Europeans often look down on Americans for never having left the USA not understanding how fucking HUGE America is and how difficult travel can e just within this country. Few of us can pop over to a neighboring country on a day trip like most of Europe. Hell, some can't manage a neighboring STATE.
sep 1, 2025, 12:02 am • 23 0 • view
Canada is the second largest country by landmass in the world, with a small, spread out population and but has higher rates of international travel per capita than the US.
sep 1, 2025, 12:38 am • 3 0 • view
Also, Canada being a Commonwealth Country (linked to the UK) means it's easy in terms of paperwork to travel to any of the other Commonwealth countries around the world.
sep 1, 2025, 5:13 am • 0 0 • view
Because 98% of the country lives within 100 miles of the border of the United States.
sep 1, 2025, 12:40 am • 12 0 • view
Well yeah, but; are we counting travel to the US? Far more of our population is in within 100 miles of the US border than the other way around.
sep 1, 2025, 12:43 am • 1 0 • view
Not sure if it counts. But it could definitely skew the stat if it does! All three "big" CA cities are near the border and in the US only Detroit* and Seattle are. *North West of Windsor ON which is, a kinda fun fact.
sep 1, 2025, 1:16 am • 0 0 • view
(I'd even guess there are more Canadians in absolute terms within 100 miles of the border. But, not totally sure.)
sep 1, 2025, 1:17 am • 0 0 • view
Yes, because much of the north is barely habitable because it’s a frozen tundra. Try to insult us harder, Brian. 😍😉
sep 1, 2025, 12:55 am • 0 0 • view
Well, in the western half you've got to travel hundreds of miles north to even get to the taiga, let alone the tundra. That Canadian shield, though, woof. No US residents flocking north to see that.
sep 1, 2025, 2:19 am • 0 0 • view
I mean, if that’s all you want to see, I guess, but I’d have to hard disagree
sep 1, 2025, 12:19 am • 6 0 • view
Came across my timeline at such a serendipitous time I thought it was part of this thread.
aug 31, 2025, 11:47 pm • 3 0 • view
Rail isn't about total population-it's about concentration. Even a sparsely populated area could work if people lived in compact cities instead of spread thin across suburbs and countryside.
sep 1, 2025, 7:11 am • 2 0 • view
Looking thru the other end of the glass: The entirety of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) is almost exactly the land mass of my state, Oregon. The population of the state of Oregon is about the same as the city of Birmingham in England.
sep 1, 2025, 12:42 am • 4 0 • view
in reverse this is the "well why don't you live in a non-attached house when you don't live in a city" and well do i have news from this side /it's very expensive and rarely available due to exactly that density
aug 31, 2025, 11:47 pm • 3 0 • view
Chiming in from down under... A high speed rail link between Melbourne and Sydney is a perennial topic but, anytime it gets serious, someone wants to add Canberra to the route, and... Current trip takes 10-11 hours on a good day, although my daughter doesn't mind. I gather it's well patronised.
sep 1, 2025, 12:44 am • 2 0 • view
We don’t have high speed rail because we like to keep poor people, and brown and black people, contained. White supremacy means we can’t have nice things.
sep 1, 2025, 2:33 pm • 0 0 • view
The US has a vast and relatively efficient train network that includes all sorts of tiny towns in the Midwest and Mountain West, but it's all focused on moving goods and livestock and not people. The US is about the size of Europe (and a huge part is Alaska). Absolutely doable. But cars. Cars!
aug 31, 2025, 11:52 pm • 43 1 • view
Many people in Europe and indeed the eastern US don't really understand just how much wide open and unpopulated space there is the West. There are many places where you can drive for a couple of hours without seeing any real sign of humanity besides the road you are on. Lots of open space!
aug 31, 2025, 11:51 pm • 4 0 • view
And yet the US built dams and canals to water the deserts in the South-West. Regardless of lack of population. Plenty of Europeans and Easterners seem to be more aware of the South-West's water situation than those currently drilling and draining aquifers dry for more golf courses in the desert.
sep 1, 2025, 2:25 am • 3 0 • view
I travel by train around Europe (I never fly) and even if it takes a few days at least I am visiting different countries and cities, and am on holiday. My cousin went to America as a youth and planned to drive, then discovered very quickly how big the US is and got a youth plane ticket thing. 😆
sep 1, 2025, 6:37 am • 2 0 • view
Canada is a bit different. While he have a lot of empty space, the corridor from Quebec City through Montreal, Ottawa and down to Toronto hosts millions of people in a relatively small area. Yet we have these little trains, 4 or 5 passenger cars each, running every few hours.
aug 31, 2025, 11:50 pm • 7 0 • view
And heavily subsidized.
sep 1, 2025, 11:47 pm • 0 0 • view
And CN owns the tracks, so your six-hour trip from Montreal to Toronto takes eight hours because the corn's gotta travel.
sep 1, 2025, 12:37 am • 11 0 • view
I wonder how many folks dont get this. The cargo > passenger thing is a huge constraint pretty much everywhere you have dual use.
sep 1, 2025, 12:46 am • 12 1 • view
It's definitely the biggest obstacle in these parts. The sheer distance - well, we maintain longer things. It's the freight, and the willingness to build dedicated lines, and obtaining the land to build the dedicated lines THROUGH.
sep 1, 2025, 12:53 am • 4 0 • view
Not possible? Pretty sure we already did it once.
aug 31, 2025, 11:45 pm • 16 0 • view
We wouldn't even have to build new rail. Just clean and repair the thousands of miles of abandoned rail. A lot of it is already there.
sep 1, 2025, 12:07 am • 1 0 • view
yeah spain is roughly the same size and population density as the US midwest and has an effective rail network. it's very doable you'd likely have disconnected networks--a big one east of the Mississippi, another west coast, a third sort of center-south, rather than one unified one
aug 31, 2025, 11:51 pm • 21 0 • view
I agree that rail is good and doable if we had the will, but as a point of info, Spain is maybe 2/3rds the size.
sep 1, 2025, 12:18 am • 38 0 • view
hence the word "roughly". it's a lot closer than you'd think. not the same shape of course
sep 1, 2025, 12:22 am • 11 0 • view
I went strictly by square kilometers. 506k to 750k.
sep 1, 2025, 12:30 am • 1 0 • view
Missing at least two and a half Midwest states there, though (Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, not to mention Missouri, which soooometimes is thought to be in the Midwest)
sep 1, 2025, 12:25 am • 30 0 • view
Seems a relatively similar profile though, few big cities with less density in between. Perfect to connect those (still wouldn't help you). The biggest urban regions are roughly comparable in population and density to the Netherlands. So bad for HSR, great for rail brilliantmaps.com/empty-nether...
sep 1, 2025, 5:22 am • 0 0 • view
Yes but you could move Spain around a bit to fit. A lot of Spain is pretty empty too but there’s still valid routes.
sep 1, 2025, 12:51 am • 3 0 • view
But it’d still only be 2/3rds the size by square kilometers.
sep 1, 2025, 12:56 am • 17 0 • view
Ok but the distances involved between the major population centers are comparable. Also 20m MORE people live in the Midwest than Spain.
sep 1, 2025, 1:10 am • 8 0 • view
Like I said, I think rail is doable with enough will.
sep 1, 2025, 3:19 am • 54 1 • view
I keep coming back to how there are no viable north/south routes west of the Mississippi until you get to the west coast
sep 1, 2025, 3:22 am • 0 0 • view
We did it once. i've seen the tracks.
sep 1, 2025, 3:30 am • 3 0 • view
Just change the definition from viable to essential. And make those in charge realise that, like the postal service, like roads, it can’t be run for profit. Some things only work when they are nationalised not mined for profit.
sep 1, 2025, 4:30 am • 3 0 • view
Regional light rail for passengers and national heavy rail for cargo and passengers is absolutely feasible—and will only get more attractive as the national infrastructure continues to crumble.
sep 1, 2025, 8:51 am • 0 0 • view
I agree, but considering they're yanking peoples' medicine and food, I don't think efficient transit is in the cards for awhile.
sep 1, 2025, 10:01 am • 1 0 • view
A bit strange hearing that "rail isn't possible here" from americans. Didn't you guys famously do a ton of rail in the past with much less advanced technology and much less population?
sep 1, 2025, 3:28 am • 0 0 • view
And the population density between Spain and the Mid West is identical. I suspect the mid-west actually has larger cities by raw population too.
sep 1, 2025, 1:12 am • 0 0 • view
Nah the metro areas are roughly the same as Madrid/Barcelona and the other large ones.
sep 1, 2025, 1:17 am • 0 0 • view
Spain had/has the advantage of being a single national polity vs ~8 sub-states that comprise less than a fifth of the national whole. National planning and coordination vs co-equals hashing it out. To echo others, it's not that it *can't* be done, it's that it's going to be *hard*
sep 1, 2025, 3:42 am • 0 0 • view
If only we had a massive national federal structure eh? The GDP of Spain isn’t significantly smaller than Illinois either. We don’t do it because we don’t want to.
sep 1, 2025, 3:47 am • 0 0 • view
I am from Indiana originally and I think of Missouri folks as from the midwest. Tho TBH, my great great uncle died in the Civil War in Missouri and he referred to the inhabitants as "Johnny Rebs." So there is room for discussion.
sep 1, 2025, 2:25 am • 0 0 • view
Missouri is the heisenburg uncertainty principle made animus. Just at border-towns we have St. Louis w/ Illinois, Kansas City with Kansas, Blue Eye with Arkansas. MO has a hilarious amount of "I'm gonna mess up your statistics like trying to put a mononym into a credit card application." going on.
sep 1, 2025, 3:30 am • 1 0 • view
i will be cold and dead in the ground before i include anything west of the mississippi in the midwest. the UP has like five people so they're just going to have to deal
sep 1, 2025, 12:29 am • 9 0 • view
Listen, they have hot dish and you fly in from Minneapolis.
sep 1, 2025, 12:31 am • 18 0 • view
Midwest is determined by how they prepare chili.
sep 1, 2025, 12:34 am • 3 0 • view
Ha! For fun, I checked the US Census definition, and includes these states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. I would have considered the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas as plains states though.
sep 1, 2025, 12:33 am • 29 0 • view
Growing up in Nebraska, I used to have this argument with my grandmother, who lived in Indiana. I maintained then, and now, that any state in the Eastern time zone cannot be considered Midwestern by any modern definition.
sep 1, 2025, 12:39 am • 6 0 • view
I agree the Dakotas, Nebraska, & Kansas are better considered as plains states, but i will put up with it. I will not ever accept Missouri though. That is going too far.
sep 1, 2025, 2:01 am • 0 0 • view
I feel like if we’re gonna include Catalonia in Spain, we probably gotta include those states in the Midwest.
sep 1, 2025, 12:35 am • 40 0 • view
Texas will never have rail because of Southwest Airlines
sep 1, 2025, 1:16 am • 0 0 • view
i will never get why all these great plains people try to include themselves as midwest. your region has "great" right in the name, enjoy it!
sep 1, 2025, 12:35 am • 3 0 • view
Have you driven through any of them? Nothing "great" about it. Hands down the most boring drives.
sep 1, 2025, 12:37 am • 1 0 • view
drove through kansas once. nice night sky at least
sep 1, 2025, 12:38 am • 0 0 • view
The Midwest isn’t a location, it’s a state of mind. Or possibly a hot dish.
sep 1, 2025, 12:28 am • 40 1 • view
Ya, you betcha!
sep 1, 2025, 3:18 am • 5 0 • view
Plus, there IS some commuter train in that area. Detroit to Chicago. Which is really all you need in that particular zone. The rest is nice but not relevant in an industrial sense.
sep 1, 2025, 2:37 am • 0 0 • view
At least not that isn't connected by waterway.
sep 1, 2025, 2:37 am • 0 0 • view
Growing up in Nebraska, everyone I knew (including local media) thought of ourselves as part of the Midwest. I was honestly surprised to realize that Michigan thought of itself that way, too, when I first moved here! (Should have known, I guess.) So yeah: fuzzy definitions, and very very big.
sep 1, 2025, 12:30 am • 2 0 • view
Also unless those trains can float you’ve got the Lakes to work around. There are already MASSIVE transport pressure points (car, truck and train alike) as you can only swing South without leaving the country.
sep 1, 2025, 1:21 am • 0 0 • view
I do think Missouri is part of the Midwest, but as a native Kansan, I do so begrudgingly
sep 1, 2025, 12:30 am • 2 0 • view
Naaahhhh bro, listen to your heart! You know it's not right.
sep 1, 2025, 2:04 am • 0 0 • view
I mean one of my sisters lives there now, and I'm cool with the greater KC area, but there's still a lot of residual John Brown left
sep 1, 2025, 3:15 am • 1 0 • view
This country is overdue a major infrastructure upgrade like the interstate highway system. For instance, I20 between Dallas and Shreveport is still 4 lanes. Needs to be upgraded to eight lanes with autonomous vehicles usage in mind.
sep 1, 2025, 2:25 pm • 0 0 • view
And of course, our population density is such that we could resettle every single Ukrainian in the United States without overcrowding the country.
aug 31, 2025, 11:58 pm • 2 0 • view
Lived in Germany for nearly 7 years. LOVED being able to "just take the train" to get places, including other countries. ... and this was pre-EU/EC. Supplemented with bus, I didn't even have to plan most local travel, just head out when ready. Pre-Internet/cell, so I relied on station maps a LOT.
sep 1, 2025, 12:45 am • 8 0 • view
What the OP Does not seem to understand though is America Had Rail lines all over the West, we chose to stop maintaining the lines. It is disappointing.
sep 1, 2025, 12:09 am • 5 0 • view
We can do better.
sep 1, 2025, 12:07 am • 1 0 • view
As I understand it. The network 100% existed prior to highways being everywhere. Railways used for both passengers and product were torn up and destroyed to make room for highways. That and black communities.
sep 1, 2025, 3:22 am • 2 0 • view
and in some places, there are still railroads, but there aren't passenger railroads, just freight trains. In at least some places, they first changed Amtrak's schedule to make it inconvenient for everyone, cutting ridership so they could get rid of it completely due to low use. 😡
sep 1, 2025, 4:45 am • 0 0 • view
This definitely happened to the passenger train that used to run between College Station, TX (where Texas A&M University is) and Dallas, TX. College kids used to be able to take the train home to Dallas for the weekend if they didn't have a Friday class too late (train left at 10 or 11) and could
sep 1, 2025, 4:45 am • 1 0 • view
come back Sunday night. When Amtrak &/or Union Pacific (owner of the rail lines) decided to kill it, schedule changed to only Tues. & Thurs.; worthless; people would have to miss at least 2 days of work or school. Then, very low ridership. Then, gone. Now just freight.
sep 1, 2025, 4:45 am • 1 0 • view
We’ve got a bit of space here in Australia and we’ve done a pretty good job of creating rail networks within and between major cities. Could always do a very fast train between some of these cities, but definitely bearable.
sep 1, 2025, 12:29 am • 10 0 • view
I hate to say this but we haven't. We have created luxury land cruises. The lowest travel class between Adelaide, Darwin, and Perth or between any of them and Sydney or Melbourne is Gold class. It's not a bad price between Sydney, Melbourne, or Canberra.
sep 1, 2025, 4:16 am • 3 0 • view
Use the interstate right-of-way.
sep 1, 2025, 12:59 am • 0 0 • view
Of course a national rail system is possible. We already *have* one. It simply has not been well-maintained and is not generally geared towards transport of people. Lots of historical government mistakes, among other things.
sep 1, 2025, 1:13 am • 8 0 • view
Inherited from corporate monopoly mistakes.
sep 1, 2025, 2:20 am • 2 0 • view
Let us say more accurately that the transportation sector was particularly ill-served by the interaction between corporate monopolies and elected officials. ;-)
sep 1, 2025, 4:01 am • 5 0 • view
💯 There are some (some? many!) parallels between the Gilded Age (1870-1890) when this was happening and today.
sep 1, 2025, 2:18 pm • 0 0 • view
Indeed. Looking forward to the fashion revival if nothing else.
sep 1, 2025, 7:17 pm • 1 0 • view