Train System Layout

Enjoying a train ride with my wife and son in Switzerland.

This is part of my series on being better than Switzerland. One of the things that I want to see is trains across the US. Nice trains. Trains that are enjoyable to use. But how do we get there? Here I will outline some of the initial requirements and goals of the system.

1. Quality Stations in Every Town

First of course, we can acknowledge that we want it. Then the question is, “How?” As a simple starting point, we want to have stations in the center of every town. Nice clean stations.

2. Spiderweb Design

The overall design should be more like a spiderweb. If we want to get from one place to another easily, we need to be able to switch trains. For that, we can have hubs or transfer points.

In Boston, where I am currently residing, the train system is limited, and if you want to switch trains, you have to go downtown. If you’re outside of the city, it’s difficult to go just a few towns over. The layout in Boston is more of a “star” with a central point and lines radiating out. Unlike the highway system, it’s not a wheel.

3. Easy Access to Grocery Stores

If we want to make day-to-day life easier, and put more emphasis on trains, we need to deal with one downside of trains is shopping in suburban communities, buying groceries, and day-to-day shopping. Buying groceries, for example, often requires having many bags, and that’s difficult to do by train, any train. We want some way to make “larger” shopping easier.

In Switzerland, this is accomplished by people having stores closer to their homes. They go shopping very frequently, every few days. They make many small trips, and it’s easy, because the stores are close. There aren’t many bags to carry because they go often. This also means that people can have smaller homes, because they don’t need so much storage or larger kitchens.

One major reason why people need cars in the United States is to get food. We need to consider these aspects in our design.

There are many other benefits to having close grocery stores, one of which is eating better. When quality food is close by and easy to get, people have fresher and more natural foods. They can also have smaller homes, because they don’t need to store as much food.

One solution to this situation is perhaps to have more of a daily delivery food system or a general daily delivery system. An improved version of the post office?

I had actually considered something like this in another business that I am investing in called White Rabbit.