Quote Originally Posted by BleeckerSt_Girl View Post
It took decades for passenger trains to decline in use and service- entire lines were eliminated left and right, starting with the car boom of the 1950's and the rise of superhighways and suburbia.
It will likely take many years to build the railroads back up again. But I sense it will slowly happen out of necessity.
Amen sister.

Another major problem, at least here in Canada but I suspect it's the same in the USA, is that freight has priority on the rails (except for limited areas where there is a lot of commuter service, like around New York City, and that's only at certain hours). There is a pretty good service between Quebec City and Windsor in Canada (most popular connections being Montreal-Quebec City, Montreal-Toronto, and there is also a side-service to Ottawa which is very busy). But even then the trains are very often late because if they meet a freight train that wants to switch in front of them, they have to let them go.

(At least this was the case a few years ago when I was traveling along that corridor a lot.)

Still beats driving or taking the bus, so much more comfortable for only a few more dollars and a few more minutes. And safer, too. And wireless internet.

It will take a long time to come back to some type of capacity in the USA. It takes a long time to build or renovate passenger cars, train the staff, renovate the rails, etc.