this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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I've gotten into it with a couple of guys for needing a truck. I'm a construction electrician. That means that in addition to lugging my tools around, I have to transport rather large and heavy pieces of equipment/gear on occasion. I'd happily rock a van, but it's hell trying to find a 4x4 van (snow) at a reasonable price due to the van life crowd. I've had guys say use public transport or car share, like dude, I work 6 days a week, that isn't viable. It's a completely one sided conversation with them.
My favorite response was somebody saying small towns in America should still have infrastructure and trains to connect them (which I agree with in theory) because every small town in the UK has them without even realizing there are small towns in the US that could fit the entirety of the UK between them and the nearest other town or city.
Lol nevermind that many of those towns/villages in the UK are centuries old, while many of the smaller towns (especially out west) sprang up specifically because of the national highway system, and also many have died with the introduction of the interstate highway system. I'm all for improving our national rail lines, but it would need to be implemented carefully to ensure that no more smaller towns die out due to lack of service. And to your last point, this is where specifically a high speed rail system would excel, if only just to efficiently cover the vast distances between US towns.