I use my helmet. But I don’t need Big Brother makin’ sure I do.

Cut out the middle and just make hipsters illegal. *grin*

I don’t think the correct approach is to try to build a customer base FIRST. As explored in the article, Amtrak is slow and unreliable, in large part due to its shared infrastructure. How can we expect Americans to want to ride the train if it just plain sucks (unless you’re the adventurin’ type)? No. I like the idea of a nationalize rail system: we should, as a people, invest in the rail system. Make it fast, make it reliable. The customers will come.Jervey says, “Per passenger mile, an Amtrak train uses about half the energy of an
airplane, and can carry twice the number of people. It’s also the
passenger-carrying equivalent of 16 lanes of highway.”If this is true, how can it NOT be profitable to revamp the rail system? We just have to make the investment. If this is true, the price per trip HAS to drop. If we’re talking pure economics here, trains, by their very nature as more energy efficient, should be cheaper than planes. Again, we just have to make the investment. The customer base will come.As far as where the facts are in the article: they’re there, plain as day. Jarvis doesn’t give us specific source on a lot of them, but if you read magazine you’ll note that this is pretty much the norm. He’s telling a story here—it’s not investigative journalism. I, for one, trust he checked the accuracy of his facts. And with just a few minutes internet research, I came up with many of the same facts, myself.Great article! I’m riding the train tomorrow from the Bay Area to Salt Lake City. I’m excited. But then, I don’t have a timeframe, really.

I use my helmet. But I don’t need Big Brother makin’ sure I do.

Cut out the middle and just make hipsters illegal. *grin*

I don’t think the correct approach is to try to build a customer base FIRST. As explored in the article, Amtrak is slow and unreliable, in large part due to its shared infrastructure. How can we expect Americans to want to ride the train if it just plain sucks (unless you’re the adventurin’ type)? No. I like the idea of a nationalize rail system: we should, as a people, invest in the rail system. Make it fast, make it reliable. The customers will come.Jervey says, “Per passenger mile, an Amtrak train uses about half the energy of an
airplane, and can carry twice the number of people. It’s also the
passenger-carrying equivalent of 16 lanes of highway.”If this is true, how can it NOT be profitable to revamp the rail system? We just have to make the investment. If this is true, the price per trip HAS to drop. If we’re talking pure economics here, trains, by their very nature as more energy efficient, should be cheaper than planes. Again, we just have to make the investment. The customer base will come.As far as where the facts are in the article: they’re there, plain as day. Jarvis doesn’t give us specific source on a lot of them, but if you read magazine you’ll note that this is pretty much the norm. He’s telling a story here—it’s not investigative journalism. I, for one, trust he checked the accuracy of his facts. And with just a few minutes internet research, I came up with many of the same facts, myself.Great article! I’m riding the train tomorrow from the Bay Area to Salt Lake City. I’m excited. But then, I don’t have a timeframe, really.