Why Japan has such good railways

Post by renewiltord » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:11 PM UTC

SeanLuke wrote: post #46

It's generally regarded that Hong Kong has the best subway in the world. There are many reasons for this, but one cannot be overstated: Hong Kong's geography. A huge portion of the city consists of long thin urban corridors sandwiched between mountains and the sea. As a result, Hong Kong need concentrate its funding on only a few subway lines to support a huge portion of the population. This good article aside, I won…

Post by renewiltord » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:12 PM UTC

andrewl wrote: post #72

kinow wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a good point but I think it doesn't apply everywhere.that has a similar shape. New Zealand has a similar shape but without railways interconnecting cities. You cannot cross the country, the islands, or even regions by train. I think this could be a variable to contribute to a good coverage and infrastructure... but there are probably more factors involved.

The population density is probably one factor. New Zealand has 5.34 million people in 103,000 square miles. At the other extreme you have Hong Kong with 7.5 million people in 430 square miles. Each mile of track gives service to a much larger percentage of the population in Hong Kong than New Zealand. The same goes for a lot of the United States. The coastal corridors in the United States are population dense, but th…

Post by socalgal2 » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:14 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #115

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So America's culture of individual liberty is why people don't have the freedom to build whatever they want on the land that they own?

American's culture of me, me, me, now, now, now is why. If it doesn't benefit the individual almost immediately they're strongly opposed. They want the benefits of strong infrastructure but let someone else build it without inconveniencing ME or costing ME a dime. It is a culture that teaches greed is good and society should be built around all gain no cost.

Post by mschuster91 » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:16 PM UTC

3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #124

mschuster91 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In New York, property values go up as they near transit lines. People want the option to use the public transit because it can dramatically improve access to the rest of the city.

Post by d_sem » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:17 PM UTC

kccqzy wrote: post #142

CharlieDigital wrote: post #132

> "I think that though we are a railway company, we consider ourselves a city-shaping company. In Europe for instance, railway companies simply connect cities through their terminals. That is a pretty normal way of operating in this industry, whereas what we do is completely different: we create cities and then, as a utility facility, we add the stations and the railways to connect them one with another." I think thi…

> Certainly, part of it is also cultural and legal frameworks that in the US make it very hard for this model to work How so? In the United States Congress granted land to railroad companies, and the companies can sell the land to finance building tracks. Many cities started as railroad stops and grew because of the railroad.