Sorry, I didn't finish the article. The cause of decline was that autos became cheap and the interstate highway system made travel faster and much better than trains. No schedules, freedom to stop and start at will, ability to take side trips on a whim, cheaper, faster and you had a vehicle when you got to your destination! It is absurd to report that their decline was some sort of mismanagement. When(if) the California high speed rail boondoggle gets completed, who the heck wants to risk their lives on the thing and then rent a car or take busses around. Not me, that's for sure.
The highways are governent handouts. Huge investments that is not paid for by gas taxes. If they invested more of that money into making trains faster and more convenient then more people would chose trains.
I would just like to add that the California High-Speed Rail Authority went hog-wild it seems with building what I would say are four unnecessary viaducts (pergolas by any other name) — 3 over the BNSF and one over the Union Pacific. Had a route west of State Route 99 through Fresno been fashioned, one running adjacent to the 99 (as it is referred to by locals), all the way to Selma (the next really sizable community to the south) and then running adjacent to State Route 43 (it would be helpful at this point to consult a representative map) all the way into Bakersfield, the cost to build would, I feel, be much more palatable to many more people. Between Fresno and Shafter, the BNSF is not just leapfrogged by high-speed-rail structures three times, but in the nondescript town of Bowles (also south of Fresno) BNSF trackage necessitated relocating so the HSR right of way was provided with sufficient access-way to be able to make its own way through.
If that wasn’t enough, two miles of the 99 between Ashlan and Clinton avenues in Fresno was moved 100 feet west so HSR could be provided its own right-of-way space between what became the new northbound lanes of the 99 and the existing no. 1 and 2 tracks of UP situated to HSR’s east at this location, not to mention the trenching that was required for the HSR right of way to be able to pass under both legs of a railroad wye along with an irrigation canal. This was wasteful and unnecessary building and spending in my view. Had the line been built west of the 99, that right-of-way construction work could have been obviated.
Sorry, I didn't finish the article. The cause of decline was that autos became cheap and the interstate highway system made travel faster and much better than trains. No schedules, freedom to stop and start at will, ability to take side trips on a whim, cheaper, faster and you had a vehicle when you got to your destination! It is absurd to report that their decline was some sort of mismanagement. When(if) the California high speed rail boondoggle gets completed, who the heck wants to risk their lives on the thing and then rent a car or take busses around. Not me, that's for sure.
These things were also true in Australia yet we still have quality interurban railways with high frequency on major corridors:
Sydney-Central Coast- Newcastle
Melbourne to Ballarat, Bendigo, Latrobe Valley and Geelong
Sydney-Wollongong-Shoalhaven
Sydney-Blue Mountains-Lithgow
Caboolture-Brisbane-Gold Coast
Perth-Bunbury
We also have significantly superior suburban rail systems
The highways are governent handouts. Huge investments that is not paid for by gas taxes. If they invested more of that money into making trains faster and more convenient then more people would chose trains.
Damn it u got me with the Thomas pic lol
Great reporting!
I would just like to add that the California High-Speed Rail Authority went hog-wild it seems with building what I would say are four unnecessary viaducts (pergolas by any other name) — 3 over the BNSF and one over the Union Pacific. Had a route west of State Route 99 through Fresno been fashioned, one running adjacent to the 99 (as it is referred to by locals), all the way to Selma (the next really sizable community to the south) and then running adjacent to State Route 43 (it would be helpful at this point to consult a representative map) all the way into Bakersfield, the cost to build would, I feel, be much more palatable to many more people. Between Fresno and Shafter, the BNSF is not just leapfrogged by high-speed-rail structures three times, but in the nondescript town of Bowles (also south of Fresno) BNSF trackage necessitated relocating so the HSR right of way was provided with sufficient access-way to be able to make its own way through.
If that wasn’t enough, two miles of the 99 between Ashlan and Clinton avenues in Fresno was moved 100 feet west so HSR could be provided its own right-of-way space between what became the new northbound lanes of the 99 and the existing no. 1 and 2 tracks of UP situated to HSR’s east at this location, not to mention the trenching that was required for the HSR right of way to be able to pass under both legs of a railroad wye along with an irrigation canal. This was wasteful and unnecessary building and spending in my view. Had the line been built west of the 99, that right-of-way construction work could have been obviated.