Why are trains no longer used for travel in America? Or at least in Missouri?

Question

Why are trains no longer used for travel in America? Or at least in Missouri?

Answer 1

Trians are used in Missouri, see Amtrak

Answer 2

Trains do continue to carry passengers.  AMTRAK is the name.  Address or Google the word and you will find lots of info about passenger trains.

Answer 3

Trains are used quite often in America.  Amtrak has a nationwide rail network, and many large cities have local rail systems (NYC, LA, SF, etc.)

Answer 4

Ghost-

Your first respondant was a doof-ball!  Sorry, just had to say it!

Trains are used for passenger travel here in the US, however they just don't the the publicity the airlies do.  Manily because Amtrak has taken over all of the passenger rail travel in the US, with the exception of the commuter lines in the cities.

In your state, unfortunately, you folks like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were effected by the damage done by Hurricane Catrina a couple of years ago.

I believe that is all Union Pacific and BNSF Rail now.  They have been trying to re-establish operations in those areas, but the hosting railroads will not open their rails for passenger traffic until those areas are sound enough to handle the extra traffic.

My advice is to check Amtrak's website and find out what schedules they are running in your area.

www.amtrak.com

Good Luck!

Answer 5

Trains pollute the atmosphere and are very slow to travel by. I could easily take a plane and get there three times faster. It also is takes a lot of money and metal to lay the tracks.

Answer 6

In this world where faster is better, most people choose to fly rather than take the train.  But .... not everyone can fly.  Some people (like my husband) have inner ear problems.  For those people, trains and automobiles are the way they travel.

It would be wonderful if today's shortline RRs had a passenger car or two in their consist like many of the large companies did back in the first half of the 20th century, but I don't see it happening any time soon.  <SIGH>

Answer 7

Ridership is up in almost every sector of Amtrak's system, proving conclusively that people WILL ride if they have the option.

Trains pollute far less than automobiles, each train is capable of carrying several hundred passengers, and that takes a huge amount of automobile traffic off the roads.

In the northeast there are some routes that are electric which pollutes even less.

We have not funded amtrak enough to provide anything more than the barest service.

If our elected representatives were able to see beyond the next election and choose to fund amtrak at a level that is not an embarassment in the civilized world ridership would go even more dramatically.

It will never replace the personal automobile, it is not trying to, but given the choices, more people would choose to ride trains.

In Europe there are many people that do not own personal autos, not because they can, far from it, they have a good enough public transport system the choose not to.