It doesn’t make sense to invest money in passenger trains beyond basic renovations. As the NCDOT looks to cut costs, it should do its best to remove funds from the seldom used passenger trains so that they may be used for more practical freight trains.
Many people are unaware that the state is home to two passenger trains because very few people use the railways as their principal means of travel. Putting money into marketing strategies and new features to increase ridership is wasting the state’s delicate resources that could easily be used in much more effective ways.
I’d love to see North Carolina have an expansive high-speed rail system. The environmental benefits would be tremendous, not to mention the significant abatement in highway traffic. But our country is simply not suited for this model of travel that works so well in Europe.
Many people will always prefer to drive, despite the cost. Those that don’t have access to a car will continue to use other forms of public transportation, even for long distances. People often consider taking a bus to New York rather than paying for a flight, but when was the last time you heard of someone taking the train? Despite that, the Carolinian train makes that long trip every single day.
And investing more in passenger trains may be detrimental to the enormously successful freight train industry in America, which removes the need for hundreds of cargo trucks on the highways. Congestion on train tracks would result in slower and fewer freight trains. It’s essentially creating a new service and expecting demand to appear, while taking away a service that has seen success for decades.
If anyone insists on traveling by rail, they’re always welcome to hop a freight train.
Read the opposing viewpoint here.
