I'd always hear that Nixon intended Amtrak to fail (or at least, his behavior is indistinguishable from someone who intended Amtrak to fail), but that it failed to fail and has continued doing so for 40 years.
I honestly don't think more funding would make anything like a Japanese system, though. Even ignoring the distance and population density, Japanese infrastructure is built around trains in a way that America would require a ton of rebuilding to duplicate. Just funding the trains more wouldn't put the stations in more convenient locations or route the tracks through populated areas, though it would improve a bunch of stuff. I'd love if Amtrak could pay people to roam around serving food local to the places it passed through.
(I also admit that I'm more disposed to Japanese cultural norms on mass transit, like most people sitting in silence!)
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I honestly don't think more funding would make anything like a Japanese system, though. Even ignoring the distance and population density, Japanese infrastructure is built around trains in a way that America would require a ton of rebuilding to duplicate. Just funding the trains more wouldn't put the stations in more convenient locations or route the tracks through populated areas, though it would improve a bunch of stuff. I'd love if Amtrak could pay people to roam around serving food local to the places it passed through.
(I also admit that I'm more disposed to Japanese cultural norms on mass transit, like most people sitting in silence!)