/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>53666500
if you look at this handy map, you will see that there isnt much between LA and norcal worth stopping at, unless you're going to randomly swing through the central valley.

Amtrak having to stop at every bumfuck town it happens to pass through is a big part of the reason why it ISNT profitable.

have you ever ridden an amtrak outside the boston-washington corridor? thats the only profitable route. On all the rest, 95% of the stops involve one or two people getting on and off. But they can't just skip the place, because the locals have votes, and they feel like having an amtrak stop "puts them on the map", even if they never buy a ticket.

thats a big reason why high speed rail is so hard in america - every shitty tiny town that the route passes through wants the train to stop there, and trying to pass them over will get local legislators up your ass.

>>18212042
>california is actually really spread out
Yeah because large swaths of the state are mountains, national parks, or deserts. The places where people actually live are packed fucking tight. Pictured here is 40 million people almost entirely packed into 3 major areas.