penkster t1_isyze0s wrote on October 19, 2022 at 6:55 PM

Train lines are hideously expensive to build, particularly if there's no right of way already established. There's always people who will not sell part of their property to allow a train line to be run through it.

Bus lines are much much less expensive, and can run over the existing roadways. Until there's a huge commuter need for this type of service, it just doesn't make sense to invest in it.

OptimalFlight101 t1_isz0b8h wrote on October 19, 2022 at 7:01 PM

The idea of city building though is to create infrastructure first and for demand to follow it. At least in better countries.

American way is to play constant catch up with problems due to lack of foresight.

penkster t1_iszncf8 wrote on October 19, 2022 at 9:26 PM

You know that's not how state and city governments think. Look at the Big Dig. $21billion spent to make car travel faster and easier. Very little improvement to the rail service. In a lot of ways the big dig just pushed the congestion further into the suburbs, with 93 and the mass pike being regularly at a standstill.

So yeah, 'proper' rail service is politically unfeasible.

PLS-Surveyor-US t1_it0augv wrote on October 20, 2022 at 12:18 AM

If you study the highway map, you will see the capacity of the highway system to the south is lower than any other sector. This puts more traffic on the pike. The planned northeast corridor route would have balanced this a little better...but here we are. Google maps with the traffic layer on illustrates this status on a daily basis. The big dig fixed a ton of access issues around the city. There has been capacity issues on 93 south for decades prior to the project and they continue to worsen.