With the possibility that McCain may be our next President and goes after Amtrak. What would be left? I am thinking in a worst case scenario we might be left with the NE Corridor, short distance routes out of Chicago and the West Coast LA and Seattle area. All long distance trains would be gone. Amtrak would disapear. The NE corridor would be privatized. The states would operate anything else that survived. This brings up the question I posed at the top. Which country has the biggest population or area with no rail passenger service(other than places like Afganistan, the continent of Africa except for South Africa). Much of South America is now without any real passenger network, but Mexico stands out as the winner. Since they sold off their railroads to private operators there is no remaining passenger network. Only the copper canyon tourist trains remain and they are privately operated. Panama has passenger service that has been restored along the canal by the current private operator. Do any South American countries have a real passenger network left besides some commuter trains and tourist lines? It is possible that we in the US could be next? What do you think? Should we hurry up and ride any routes that we have missed over time?
Largest Country without Rail Passenger Service
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I think Brazil is much larger than Mexico, and I don't recall them having much of a passenger network.
Dutchrailnut
Conductor
Gingee a bit off topic ???
Brazil has plenty of passenger rail specially around Rio and other major cities.
Largest country without passenger rail is probably Saudi Arabia
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sky12065
Conductor
Please explain how Gingee's post is "a bit off topic ???" when the very first sentence of the origional post reads "With the possibility that McCain may be our next President and goes after Amtrak."? <_<
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McCain would not have any more power over Amtrak than did the incumbent. There is still a Congress. Amtrak will continue, even if, as always, under lessa than desirable conditions.
Crescent Mark
Service Attendant
I know this is not regular passenger service - but if I recall correctly, doesn't the American Orient Express run some sort of route through Mexico? Does Amtrak have anything to do with this (pulling the train like they do in the USA)?
Number of threads on this forum recently. The AOE is now out of business.
But, they did have a trip in Mexico ever now and then. I don't know the details.
Crescent Mark
Service Attendant
GrandLuxe Rail Journeys
http://www.americanorientexpress.com/html/...ourney0809.html
San Fran -> Mexico
http://www.americanorientexpress.com/html/.../Mexico_08.html
Copper Canyon Mexico
It's showing 2008-2009.
Yes I too had noticed yesterday that they had not yet taken down their website, much less acknowledged that they aren't accepting reservations.
Maybe they're still collecting money to try and pay off the debt. :lol: :lol:
G
Guest_George Harris_*
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Saudi Arabia has passenger trains.
From the Wikipedia article, which in this case seems to be accurate:
The words, "same basement" in the Note are probably supposed to be "same formation" which is the British way of saying closely parallel on the same general alignment and earthworks.
One peculiarity of the Saudi passenger trains, at least as about 10 to 15 years ago and probably still inplace, and one that should be expected considering the nature of their society, was a sign in stations to the effect that, no women are permitted on trains without a father, husband, brother, or other acceptable male relative.
HP_Lovecraft
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And unfortunetly, the original post looks more like a push poll then a valid question.
What about Australia? Do they have a train service?
Dutchrailnut
Conductor
Australia has plenty of rail service, both commuter , long distance and even luxury type tourist trains like the Ghan.
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Back to the original question. This is not mean't to be political. I was just curious. Saudi Arabia is really a little out in left field. It's mostly unoccupied desert. I was really wondering more about viable, populated, modern countries that had forsaken rail for highways and airports and buses. I know the Mexican passenger network fell apart from neglect and now is non-existant. It seems to me South America may be close behind followed by us, who knows but lets hope not. This contrasts with Europe, England, Japan, China, India, Russia, South Africa, even Canada etc. that have extensive passenger rail service and in the case of Europe and Japan simply fantastic first class systems with a mix of high speed and local service.
I'd hardly class Canada as having extensive passenger rail service. They have a fraction of what we have here in the US. They have one train that approaches the distances of the CZ, EB, Chief, and Sunset. They have only two trains that approach the distances of the CL, LSL, CS, Silvers, Crescent, and Cardinal. And their "corridor" doesn't even come close to our NEC. They have nothing that rivals the California services and the short hauls out of Chicago.
Dutchrailnut
Conductor
The question was without passenger service, not what we or so consider as limited passenger service.
VentureForth
Engineer
Hmmm... Mexico City has a subway system that transports 1.5 BILLION passengers a year... That's pretty extensive, albiet localized.
I had the opportunity to ride a long distance Mexican passenger train from San Luis Potosi to Nuevo Laredo. That was back in 1991. No photos. Not a rail fan per se at the time. I loved it. It's gone.
I had the opportunity to ride a long distance Mexican passenger train from San Luis Potosi to Nuevo Laredo. That was back in 1991. No photos. Not a rail fan per se at the time. I loved it. It's gone.
Yes, the original question was that, but the OP decided to take things off on a slight tangent.
We know Mexico City has an extensive subway system. It also has a commuter rail line.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrocarril_S..._de_M%C3%A9xico
There is also light rail in Guadalajara and Monterey.
But their intercity passenger service was suspended in 1997 to make way for privatization of it's freight rail system which was falling apart. So currently there is no rail passenger service between Mexico's largest cities such as Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterey, Veracruz, Tampico, Merida, or the US border, Nuevo Laredo, Cuidad Juarez, Nogales or Mecali. That was the original question. Is Mexico the largest, most populated country in the modern world without a viable intercity passenger rail system. I believe it is. And it is an example of where we could be heading. South American(Brasil, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela haven't fared much better although they do still have some intercity service). One person put it this way when I did some research into this: "It's the difference between a rich country and less wealthy-to-poorer countries (US vs. them). We can afford to run things like Amtrak for fun. They can't.
Railroads, as old industrial enterprises, suffered from overstaffing, relatively high wages, and inefficient practices (work rules), plus all the infrastructure maintenance issues. When it was difficult or impossible to reform things like this, the service...poof...went away, and more efficient services took over. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Mexico
jis
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According to the Thomas Cook Overseas Rail Timetable Summer 2008 edition Mexico has the following rail service:
1. Chihuahua - Los Moches 655km operated by Ferromex
2. Felipe Pescador - Torreon 322km operated by Ferromex
3. Cuatro Cienegas - Sierra Mojada 178km operated by Ferrocarril Coaahuila - Durango
4. Guadalajara - Tequila 72km operated by Tequila Express Guaadalajara
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G
Guest
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That's an easy question to answer. The largest country w/o passenger (real) passenger rail service is..........................THE UNITED STATES!!!
I love trains and Amtrak, but after riding Japan Railways trains, Amtrak doesn't even come close.
I love trains and Amtrak, but after riding Japan Railways trains, Amtrak doesn't even come close.
With all due respect, that's a pretty tortured application of the OP's concept of a nation without passenger rail service! :angry:
I have personally taken long-distance Amtrak trains from Chicago to:
1) Washington D.C. and back (three times)
2) Cleveland and back
3) New Orleans
and taken several corridor trains in the Midwest to/from Milwaukee, Springfield, and Galesburg. All of these trips were for transportation, often business, sometimes personal, but never merely Grand Luxe-style cruises.
The New York City subway system carries significantly more passengers on significantly more trains on significantly more routes than any other urban rail system in the U.S., with numbers head-and-shoulders above even the next-largest systems like Chicago's CTA or Washington D.C.'s Metrorail. Does that mean that the only U.S. city with real urban rail service is New York City?!
The system we have needs to be improved, and I agree that it is a shadow compared to many others, but it exists, and gross hyperbole is pointless.
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