Testing the Hypothesis

Railway transportation systems in the United States are not well established as popular, transnational passenger mobility systems because of the lack of accessibility and convenience.

Existing railway systems are primarily focused on the movement of consumer goods rather than passenger transport, but they could benefit from this added element. The passengers themselves will also benefit from public transit because it is affordable and practical compared to driving cars.

What the united states railway system is lacking is up-to-date technologies that other countries have in their railway systems. These other systems have high-speed trains that are also more efficient. There are existing, national passenger railways but they are not popular and highly used. Additionally, there are local railways that are highly used but not connected to a greater national system.

Railway transit is not widely used due to its lack of accessibility and convenience, but there are other reasons that U.S. citizens favor other types of transportation as well. Since the late 1940s, car transportation has grown into an integral part of U.S. culture. Individualized travel via highways is a commonly shared activity for much of the country’s people because of the way our country has developed. The highway system has spread cities out far away from one another as our country has a greater landmass than many. Additionally, the way cities and their corresponding suburbs have grown has revolved around driving.

I learned in my interviews that more people had used inter-city railway transit than I had thought. However, most people who had taken it before had only taken it a few times in their lives. One interviewee mentioned something that I had not considered before because I did not know it existed, and that was something called the “auto-train.” This is a rail line that allows you to load your car onto the train, then when you arrive at your destination you have your car with you. This kind of system is not widespread but seems conducive to how the American highway system is already set up. I also interviewed someone that is from the U.S. but actually lives in Scotland because I wanted to know more about how life is in a country where railway transit is more popular. She finds that having the ability to travel across the UK for an affordable price is great for traveling and accessing other places in the country. However, she mentioned that the road system in the UK isn’t comparable to that in the U.S. and the UK is much smaller in size.

I now understand that there are different reasons not only for why people would want a transnational railway system, but also what that system could look like. This has led me to have a better understanding of what a more utilized and accessible railway system would look like in our country compared to that of other countries as the U.S. poses many other factors.