FECI bringing back private passenger rail to US

[GurraJG]

Way lame. It's like, well here's the bus that runs every 30 mins, 6.30am to 5.30pm.

I'm fairly used to buses only running twice an hour, but only to 5.30pm? Wow, that's pitiful!

[JamieLei]

To be fair, the political parties in Britain begin the annual circus every January 2nd regarding train fares, in addition to the price of petrol. In this year's instalment, the Labour party criticised the Conservative government for increasing fares 1% above inflation, even though they'd downgraded that from 3%. And ironically, the inflation plus 1% formula was set by the previous Labour government anyway, such that they were pretty much arguing against themselves.

Driving in the UK is often seen as a "premium" product. Everyone knows that they can take the bus, since there are VERY few places within cities that aren't connected by at least a half hourly bus service, and thus I believe are less inclined to complain about petrol prices since they have the choice. In the US on the other hand, not only is there often no choice but its often seen as almost "humiliating" and associating with "poor people" and Democrat voters.

[orudge]

When I was living in Minneapolis, the buses tended to be filled with students (at least the buses that ran through the university campus), and, potentially for want of a better word, poor people. And those people were predominately from ethnic minorities, it seemed.

That said, some of the bus routes, such as from the neighbourhood I lived in to downtown, did have a wider patronage, given that the area I lived in tended to be filled with hipsters and the like!

[Dave]

To be fair, the political parties in Britain begin the annual circus every January 2nd regarding train fares, in addition to the price of petrol. In this year's instalment, the Labour party criticised the Conservative government for increasing fares 1% above inflation, even though they'd downgraded that from 3%. And ironically, the inflation plus 1% formula was set by the previous Labour government anyway, such that they were pretty much arguing against themselves.

Driving in the UK is often seen as a "premium" product. Everyone knows that they can take the bus, since there are VERY few places within cities that aren't connected by at least a half hourly bus service, and thus I believe are less inclined to complain about petrol prices since they have the choice. In the US on the other hand, not only is there often no choice but its often seen as almost "humiliating" and associating with "poor people" and Democrat voters.

I think the exception is the metro systems New York, Chicago and Washington, they are well used and rather good

Here is what Homer Simpson thinks of public transport...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-iWBCL12Qg

Just in case we were worried Alan didn't post any evidence

[doktorhonig]

One thing I don't get is how the Price of Gasoline in the US is so political? They're paying less than pretty much everywhere in the world, certainly less than in Australia, and way less than people in Europe. Heaven forbid it approach something vaguely similar to market value. Curse you Obama, you communist.

Low gasoline prices lead to a different behaviour: People buy different cars (click me for a lol), build different houses and build them at different places. Most of them also own a house (instead of renting an apartment), which makes it difficult to move close to work. If your house is far away from the city, it becomes less valuable if gasoline prices rise.