“This is propaganda!”
proceeds to sit idly by and do nothing, assuring themselves their 50yr old tech is still somehow ahead of China
It’s insane how the US plainly ignores trains, and even busses, in favour for cars.
Passenger rail yes, but not freight rail. We actually have a very strong freight rail system, but a lot of that is a holdover from when the federal government used land grants to railroads to encourage migration to the West in particular. In exchange, railway companies provided passenger rail service.
There was a post-WW2 shift. Passenger rail became to be viewed increasingly poorly by most consumers. Railways didn’t like it because the service was provided at a loss. In 1971, the passenger railway obligations were consolidated by Congress under Amtrak.
The late 1970’s and 1980’s brought deregulation of the railway industry. It had struggled to compete with the trucking industry. Since then, rates have fallen enormously. However, they also have caught the eye of Wall Street investors with an eye towards wringing profit out of companies at the expense of long term viability. In the case of rail, they have run their employees ragged and cheaped out on maintenance.
Policymakers still recognize freight rail as important for the economy, to the point of stepping in when there was a chance of a short strike. But they don’t seem to be willing to displease railroads.
US has more than 1700 derailments a year https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/national-verify/us-averages-more-than-1700-train-derailments-a-year-fact-check/536-a3d9e66c-b24a-4f16-a3a2-262942d50ec8
meanwhile China has had 31 rail accidents in all of the 21st century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_accidents_in_China
