why airports rather than trains?

Question

why did the US spend all of their efforts on air ports and air travel. it si really stipid. people are allways getting stuck in the airports because of storms. why didnt they it on high speed rail like europe. airplanes may be fastere, but when you have a flight , you must drive to the airport, check in , wait for the flight and there is the possiblity of delays and cancelation.

in rail travelm, you go to the city center, near your home, then you buy a ticket and go wait 5 minutes for your train.

rail is slower but faster .
please give a in deph answer.
thank you
tesekuederim

i mean trains that can go very fast like maglevs . 500kmh
if the us were to use there immense knoweledge to develop train technology , we could have trains that maybe able to go 5000mph. under ground airtight tunnels .
i agree that for long distance travel air travel is far supierior, but for small trips from LA to SF a high speed train would be very useful. even though it takes a hour to do this on a plane , i usually have to drive from my house a hour to the airport then get my baggage in , then wait . when i arrive i have to drive from the airport to the city and then same thing back.

Answer 1

Well considering the sometimes 2 hour arrival time at airports, you may have a good point... Personally I am getting sick of airports security confiscating my stuff and stealing my valuables..

Answer 2

In my opinion, it is all about being able to get from one place to another, faster. As society progresses, everything is being made to go faster and faster. Think about the speed of your first computer. Now think about the progression of computers since then. Now take ovens. First, there was the regular oven. Then they developed the convection oven, which cooked faster than the regular oven. Then the microwave was created, which cooked even faster than the convection oven.

I agree with you in that the rail system should be updated. Unfortunately, it hasn't been a money-making venture in a long while. They have been steadily losing money for years. I live in Florida where we voted for legislation to build a high-speed rail. Monies were allocated for the project, however it has been YEARS and not a thing has been done to move the project forward. Someone would have to be truly dedicated to implementing the program and ensuring the completion of the project. It's not that "the people" don't want it. The bureaucrats need to be more diligent and honest when presenting projects to the public.

Answer 3

The US is huge and for very long distances planes are much faster , save time and money. But for smaller distance (inside a state or an area) trains are much more convenient and economical than driving cars and can be faster too.
They should have encouraged local public transport and trains in side the states or shorter distances and air travel for very long distances is fine.
So for going from LA to SanFrancisco there should have been good trains at regular intervals from convenient locations with connecting public transport systems, this would anytime beat a car commute.
But for going from LA to NY a flight is much faster and cheaper.

Answer 4

???
If I want to go to new york from cali it will take me eight hours by plane and 3 days by bus
(assuming I could get there via that mode of travel)
Even with weather delays, the airplane is much cheaper in terms of opportunity costs.
Those 3 days of train travel cost me MONEY 6 days of lost work time

If the US did have a more advanced rail system, do you really think that you could go and purchase a ticket five minutes before departure in this current climate.
I doubt it.
I dont think it was a stupid choice at all, not all solutions work for all countries.

Answer 5

For one the US is HUGE, not like laying a few hundred miles of track like europe. For two the train tracks we have are prehistoric. It was cheaper to fly by the time the high speed trains you are talking about came along. So we had no economic incentive to put in new train tracks.

Finally before people started crashing planes into buildings over here the whole system worked pretty smoothly.

Personally I think we ought to go back to the way it was with champagne flights and everything cause now it just looks like we are scared of some goat herders with a first grade education.

Answer 6

I think the U.S. should get a faster train system too. I took Amtrak from Florida to Michigan last year and it took over 40 hours to get there. It's only a 20 hour drive by car, 25 by bus and 2 by plane. So even with the delays, lost luggage and layovers, I still get to save about one day in travel time by flying.

Answer 7

In the US much of the political issues are driven by money. If you look at the campaign budget of any politician you will see companies who will threaten to pull their campaign contributions if certain bills pass or don't pass. Many things can be connected to politics. I seem to believe this is one of them. Not to mention big business is in the pockets of many. One may ask what this has to do with traveling in airplane or train. It has everything to do with that because chances are more plane companies are giving more political contributions than other means of transportation like trains. Trains also take up space and land, where are they going to get that land from?

Answer 8

High speed trains are fine for up to 1000 miles and in
small countries like Europe / Japan but the USA is too big.

Answer 9

Distances in the United States are greater than in any European country. No country in Europe takes three days to cross by train.

Answer 10

40 5 minutes would not comprise the waiting whilst they must get each and every thing waiting and stuff. that often takes approximately an hour or so. and that i can not stand waiting devoid of going everywhere so i will take the practice.