this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2026
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Why aren't private companies pushing trains? They could make so much money. No?
adolf muskrat made a killing pretending to push trains.
Way more profit in selling everyone a depreciating asset you make them completely dependent on so they can never go back
They make more money selling cars. Think of how many cars are needed now that everyone needs their own personal one vs trains where 1 can transport hundreds of people.
A company in Texas tried, but the state government deliberately killed it.
Because it is a complex business model. Well actually two. Freight railroads work by transporting a load of freight from one location to another one far away. Massive long trains can easily transport as much as a 100 trucks. So scale makes it worth it, but for a lot of cargo it is truck -> train -> truck, which means you need a certain distance to make it significantly shorter not to go by truck directly. So a freight railroad needs to build a long railroad to make it worth it and that is a huge initial investment.
For passengers you can see the model in Japan. Basically it is a real estate company improving its land value by offering a better rail connection.
Both require a lot of money.
And even in Japan, isn't it a bunch of conglomerate companies fighting each other and most of them not actually making and profit from passenger rail?
Not really, no.
Although there is one example in the U.S: Brightline