this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2026
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This is doable, we just have to convince our leaders is bad for the environment, will hurt brown people, will get them filthy rich and also paint them fake gold and put Drumpfs name on each train
So yea, no,
The biggest issue is that it's expensive and what we have now is functional. People aren't keen on dropping tons of cash to make something better because they're short-sighted and don't care about the future.
Also NIMBY's would shut it down hard, not wanting to live near the rail. There'd also be a lot of eminent domain claims when the rail would get close to any station point.
Back when the US had excellent rail networks, we could have upgraded and maintained them for passenger rail. But so much has been ripped out and paved over that it'd be very expensive to bring it back... and no one wants to pay more in taxes despite receiving more money back in benefit.
I get your point about how our existing transportation system is functional. I mean, it's not, but it's functional enough that people and policymakers can point to it and claim that it's good enough. We can't point to all of the trips that aren't happening because our system is so godawful exactly because they're not happening.
I just think of Amtrak's Borealis route from Minneapolis to Chicago. It's not terribly convenient (2 trains a day), nor that fast (7½ hours), nor all that cheap (close to $50), and it has blown ridership projections completely out of the water. A lot of people really want to take the train, and I understand, because the alternatives (driving or flying) are so much worse.
I have plenty of friends who'd love a train to Chicago. The Illinois Central route is still in use for freight. But Wisconsin just can't get it together to offer passenger service. Beyond NIMBYs, as we saw in the campaign for governor in 2010, rail has become a political identity issue, coded as Democratic, so Republicans are reflexively against it. As well, it's a racist dog-whistle, as seen in the bizarro claims that a train would bring Chicago crime to the city.
$50 from Minneapolis to Chicago isn't cheap?
What we have now is not functional. And you will never convince me that we somehow don't have enough money to make the average American's life better, but somehow we have the money to spend 43.6 billion, so far, on a pointless war with Iran. We have the money
The problem isn't that it can't happen, the problem is people won't vote to pay more in taxes. Left or right, we've shown that any candidate that runs on increasing taxes gets slaughtered because the voter base is too short sighted. New rail is incredibly expensive, taxes would need to be increased to pay for it (the money HAS to come from somewhere).
It's "functional" in that people can get from Chicago to NYC relatively quickly - through a flight. Sure, it's gonna cost a few hundred $$ a person, but it's not enough of a barrier to get people to pay significantly more in taxes for a few years to pay for an alternative.
The federal government isn't going to step in and do something like this ever either. They're the only ones who could even conceivably do this, but spending a billion for 2 specific states doesn't sway voters from the other 48.
We may not have a functional rail system, but we have an excellent highway system, and there is absolutely no reason that high speed rail lines can't be run down the medians of many highways, eliminating much of the eminent domain issues.
There will still be pain points, but that's the challenge of progress. A national High Speed Rail system would be worth the trouble.
I personally agree, but the voter base doesn't. People are unwilling to take the tax increase over taking a flight for the rare occurrence they go between the two cities. And the issue is getting INTO the city, not near the city. Once you hit the suburbs of either city you're fucked. Not that it can't be done, but the price tag skyrockets and that makes it a harder pill for voters to swallow.