To be fair, only one time in my adult life have I flown somewhere and NOT rented a car as soon as I landed.

the worst part of Amtrak is how often it's late, making it not only more expensive than driving or flying but also less reliable.

We don't have any buses. Or sidewalks. Or bike lanes. Or trains. Even walking near the road is super dangerous. Tell me more about your limited bus schedule.

Have you looked at railway maps?

There's a huge sprawling rainwater network across America... It's just only used by freight cause the bastards that own it decided passengers are unprofitable

I guess it’s covered by 5., but the real, actual reason we can’t have trains is the civil engineering firms can’t extract infinite money from a completed railway.

Actually, they kinda can. Railroad tracks need upkeep just like roads do. Maybe not to the same degree and maybe the costs work out differently but they do need to be maintained. So there's plenty of opportunity to grift the hell out of a railroad buildout.

California seems to be good at infinite money extraction for rail that never finishes.

Have you SEEN what the UK is doing? HS2 is at around 700 million/mile (about 900 million USD) now, you can absolutely extract infinite money from a rail line without even finishing it.

Honest answer? Partly because I can operate on my schedule and not the train’s schedule. And the rest of it is getting to have adventures along the way that otherwise would mean getting off the train, finding a bus, taking a long bus ride to the thing, taking a long bus ride back to the train, getting on the train again…

Sometimes I drive to Seattle, sometimes I take the train. There are times when I like the relaxing ‘let someone else get me there’ vibes, but there are times when the train schedule doesn’t work with my schedule, or I want to check stuff out on route, like fun restaurants I’ve read about, cool educational places, silly tourist traps…

I remember seeing a sign for ‘World’s Largest Egg!’ one trip, so I just took that exit and went to find the World’s Largest Egg, because why not?

And another reason is sometimes I just don’t want to be around a lot of people. One crowded train trip up I was treated to a child that felt the best way to pass the time on the 3.5-hour journey was to scream. A lot. It was also a trip where I’d forgotten my headphones. Not fun.

Ive heard maybe a dozen or so people whip out the ol "if everyone at the light hit the gas at the same time, at least 3+ more cars could get through the intersection"

If only there were some way to connect these many single cars into one vehicle... And if only it were cheaper... And faster... And didnt have to stop as often...

I also can’t comprehend all-day drives over all-day trains. If I take a train on my own or with my family, those are (partially) actionable hours. I can read a book, grab a coffee, work on my laptop, draw with my kid. If I go by car, best I can do is a podcast.

Since I don’t own a car, my point of view is also biased by not having to make sense of a large investment. But if you factor is the costs of having the car, gas and tolls… I’d rather go by train. If necessary, I can rent a car at my arrival destination.

Because public transit is for poor people/minorities, and if they used it they'd be around a bunch of poor people/minorities.