Why Trains?
A photo of my son years ago, jogging with our Golden Retriever Dug.
Do we need to have trains? I like the idea of having trains in the United States, but is it really the best idea? Perhaps we should have drones? Or self-driving cars? Or self-driving buses? Is there some other reason or idea?
Well, there are several things that I like about the idea.
I want to have a more scenic route. Driving on highways or roads is often just not pretty.
Constantly changing speed is stressful. When you have lots of curves or traffic or changes in direction, or stop signs, the trip becomes more stressful. While a train does stop, the stops are generally limited, and the train proceeds at a pretty fixed speed for most of the time.
No maintenance. I don’t like the idea of having to care for and maintain a car. I just want to get somewhere comfortably and easily. I don’t want to have to worry about making sure the car is maintained, where it is parked, or if it’s cleaned. There are no mechanical issues that are my responsibility. I don’t have to worry about finding, buying, evaluating, selling, and paying for a car.
Bathrooms. Trains have bathrooms. Clean, of course.
Food service. It is also nice to have some minor, if not restaurant, food service.
Space. Trains are larger and more comfortable. I am not in a tighter bucket seat. I can face my fellow passengers. I can stand up. I do not feel so cramped in a car that is just big enough to hold us. We have a table. We have a place to put things and plug them in.
Electric. I do not like the smell or feeling of fossil fuel-powered vehicles for comfortable travel. While I enjoy having the more visceral thrill when I want to drive for fun, when I am traveling for comfort, it’s not comfortable. There is smoke, the noise, and the smell of fossil fuels that are not enjoyable or comfortable to me.
Easily scalable for a larger group.
Lack of planning. I don’t have to worry about how to get from here to there. I don’t have to enter coordinates into a GPS. While there may be some changing of trains, it is generally limited.
I don’t have to drive. I don’t have to focus.
Are there other ways to provide to achieve these things? Self-driving cars, if they worked, would only solve problem number 10 (not having to drive), number 9 (planning), and maybe 7 (electric). And also perhaps with some tweaking, they could solve problem number 3 (no maintenance).
I can imagine a possible future with flying drones or spaceships of some kind that effortlessly come to our homes and take us to our destinations. There has been a lot of talk of aliens lately, so maybe they will show up and share other ways of doing these things.
