One might accept this crap as inevitable if we were talking about a consumer market, like for barbeque grills or dog food or some such. But railroads? We're talking key infra.
So, which totalitarian dictatorships are behind this wrecking of America's railroads ? Russia? China? Norfolk Southern (et al.) ?
Why do you find it so hard to believe that this isn’t just a result of greed?
It’s not like those who are bleeding that infra dry are consumers of the service itself. And couple that with a complete lack of regulation, it means they can continue to bleed the service with literally no consequences for their actions.
…but I think it’s fair to say the rot introduced by profit at all costs goes waaaay beyond this specific infra. You could apply similar complaints for plenty of other industries too, such as Boeing.
Not in the US. I mean, not culturally. Trains here are viewed as a plague, as stupid, as a waste of time. Of course they're really important and move around a lot of shit.
I would not be surprised that the train company doesn't give 2 fucks about trains. Nobody cares about trains. If you asked the average American if shutting down the railroads would be a good thing, they'd probably say yes. They're old, nasty, derail, loud...
Freight rail is absolutely key infrastructure even if the average American doesn't think about it day to day. No, except for a few places (including commuter rail in some cities), Americans don't care about and aren't willing to pay for passenger rail given that they can drive or take a plane.
Americans do not care about freight rail and they do absolutely despise it. You can go ask Americans (hint: I live here).
There are cultural issues here as well as economic ones. You're not viewed as doing something important or something innovative, and I'm sure that can discourage you from doing it right. And if you do it right - who cares? The expectation is to do it wrong.
> Americans do not care about freight rail and they do absolutely despise it.
Yeah, but those Americans are idiots (as so many of them seem to be). Idiots not caring about or despising it doesn't change the factual matter of whether it is infrastructure vital to their lives or not.
This is way off base in my experience. I live near several freight lines and cross the tracks often. The only negative is having to wait at a crossing every once in a while, but that's a very minor problem. I've literally never heard anyone bash trains in general and want them removed. In fact, it's more the opposite. There is a niche of serious train enthusiasts that get really excited about trains of various types.
So what? Whether railroads are critical infrastructure is a totally different question from whether the average American cares about railroads.
Most of us (myself included!) didn't think of grocery store workers as critical, either. We learned that they are during Covid.
(New on my list: The person who refills the toilet paper in the restrooms at work. I saw this guy doing it one day, and it struck me how critical he was - what an absolute catastrophe would happen if nobody did that job. But if you ask the average person, that is a totally unimportant job.)
One might accept this crap as inevitable if we were talking about a consumer market, like for barbeque grills or dog food or some such. But railroads? We're talking key infra.
So, which totalitarian dictatorships are behind this wrecking of America's railroads ? Russia? China? Norfolk Southern (et al.) ?