It’s been a few days now since this tweet we told you about on Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg talking up trains as the “common sense option,” but it’s still got “choo choo Twitter” going strong:
Buttigieg in North Carolina today via press pool: "When we envision travel for the next 50 years, the train should be a common sense option. The rumble of rails. The freedom of looking out your train window should once again be known to be as all-American as the open road."
— Sam Mintz (@samjmintz) April 30, 2021
But it’s so much fun to poke them?
Once again a train tweet brings out extreme positions on both sides. What is it with Twitter and trains
— Sam Mintz (@samjmintz) April 30, 2021
Here’s the latest tweet from Sean Trende at Real Clear Politics that pissing them off:
You: "Why don't we have an awesome national train system like in Europe?"
Me: pic.twitter.com/TsPYEmezX2— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) May 3, 2021
“Choo choo Twitter” is like watching an angry puppy:
Choo choo twitter is adorable! It's like watching our pug get angry. Anywho, yeah you can probably do a train from Barcelona to Moscow, but . . . I'm guessing you almost never would, which is the point. It's why *national* HSR is silly. 2/
— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) May 3, 2021
But keep dreaming, libs:
Gen Z is dreaming big. It's time we all did the same.https://t.co/UqEpjsZ1Lv
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) March 12, 2021
Maybe, and that’s a big maybe, some regional lines would make sense:
If you want to talk about certain regional lines (NY-Bos, SD-SF, maybe TX) it's a different story, at least in theory, but sorry something like this is just dumb.https://t.co/1mtgxBycHk
— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) May 3, 2021
But there’s probably not enough demand for regional lines to make a buck:
"Train people" are so delightfully dumb and easy to dunk on. This guy doesn't realize that nobody would ride these routes because he doesn't understand how people actually think. Ain't a lotta demand for a train from Tampa to Orlando! https://t.co/lzXy49Ot5L
— Jeff B., who on earth is this guy?? (@EsotericCD) May 4, 2021
It’s time to face facts!
Your high speed rail will never be built, train nuts! You have less relevannce to the national conversation than Twitter tradcath neo-monarchists! Just accept this and be the strange, vaguely gross fetishists you are. Like furries, or something.
— Jeff B., who on earth is this guy?? (@EsotericCD) May 4, 2021
But don’t take our word for it. Listen to the CEO of Amtrak:
Today’s Daily Spotlight: @patbits interviewed Amtrak CEO William Flynn about his plan to get consumers to love train travel again https://t.co/SEt1REa0Eb
— TIME (@TIME) May 4, 2021
Yes, a lot of money is going to rail travel, but the vast majority of it is going to upgrade the existing infrastructure in places where rail travel already makes sense:
In a recent interview with TIME, Flynn said his first priority is expanding passenger service to new cities, while also assessing and repairing existing infrastructure—primarily along the vital Northeast Corridor, which runs between Washington, D.C., through New York City and up to Boston and carried 12.5 million passengers in 2019. Flynn says about half of the $80 billion would go toward long-overdue repairs of century-old infrastructure along that route, like the East River Tunnel, Hudson River Tunnel, and the Susquehanna River Bridge. The rest would be used to expand intercity passenger rail service and repair infrastructure outside of the Northeast Corridor.
And as for their dreams of “true high-speed rail”? Forget about it:
But true high-speed rail isn’t on the table for Amtrak, which is in desperate need of basic repairs and other investments before major upgrades are possible.
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