"Nancy Young" > wrote in message
>> Public transport is sad in the USA. Next month I have to get from
>> suburban Washington DC to Gettysburg, a major tourism destination. It's
>> car or nothing. How did we let things get so bad?
>
> I would think that trains would be best placed on routes that
> are big corridors to reduce pollution. In the grand scheme of
> things, I don't really see the benefit in plowing a train track through
> the countryside so people can visit Gettysburg.

The track may already exist, but it has not been economically feasable for
the past 50 years or more. Trucks and cars have taken over because of ther
flexibility of schedules and routes, and used to be low cost fuel. Anyone
remember Railway Express? Packages could be sent cheaply by train too, but
UPS ran them out of business. Only poor people uses long distance busses.
Air travel is cheap enough for the working class these days. If you went to
the airport in 1955, the typical passenger was well-to-do an wore their
Sunday best for the event.