Wendover Productions - Why Trains Suck in America

Short Summary

Main recommendation: The video argues Many argue, as the video discusses, that instead of building flashy high-speed networks America should upgrade existing track so trains can run closer to their top speeds, since that would be far cheaper. It attributes American passenger rail's poor performance mainly to freight-dominated track ownership, sparse population, and a history of passenger service being subsidized rather than profitable.

Key Points

• Trains struggle in the US because the country is sparsely populated, so most city pairs are not close enough for rail to beat planes or driving on speed or cost.
• Amtrak's problems trace back to history: passenger rail lost its profitable role once cars and planes rose and the postal railroad post offices ended in the 1960s, leaving only legal obligations keeping routes alive.
• Amtrak owns only 730 of the 21,300 miles it operates on, so freight railroads such as Union Pacific and BNSF control most track and give their own freight trains priority.
• Dense, historically built Northeast Corridor towns make new straight high-speed track prohibitively expensive, with Amtrak estimating $151 billion to reach French high-speed standards.
• The video contrasts this with Europe, where national rail companies own their track, only 8% of freight in Europe is moved by rail, compared to 38% in the US, and taxpayers subsidize about half of operating costs.

Details Worth Noting

• Concrete instructions: The video's proposed fix is to upgrade current track so existing trains can run at their top speeds rather than building new high-speed lines. Its example is the Northeast Regional route, which reaches 125 mph only briefly; running at that speed for the full DC to New York leg would cut the trip to slightly over 2 hours. It also says small improvements can cut minutes that add up to hours.
• Amtrak's on-time rate averages 72%, and the Chicago to San Francisco California Zephyr arrived on time only 31% of the time in June 2016; Amtrak blames 98.6% of that route's delays on track-owning rail companies.
• Current US high-speed proposals are weak: All Aboard Florida's Miami to Orlando line tops out at 125 mph, only slightly faster than driving, and California's San Francisco to Anaheim line, expected to take 2 hours 40 minutes, has phase one not estimated complete until 2029.
• Population density is a factor: US cities average under 15,000 people per square mile, while some European cities reach 55,000, making train stations less convenient to reach on foot in America.

Bottom Line

The video's core point is that America's rail problem is structural, rooted in track ownership, freight priority, and funding models rather than just distance, so incremental track upgrades are presented as the realistic path forward.