I”m more scared of riding a train in USA than Taiwan.
I’ll pick Taiwan train every day over USA trains.
On that subject, nobody rides trains in the USA. I mean not nobody but Amtrak tickets cost way more than plane tickets. I had considered riding them for the “scenic route” from SF to Austin but the one way ticket costs over 1000 dollars… no thanks. The trip would also take about 3 days too. Fact is if any American wanted to take the scenic route somewhere, they’d drive, not take Amtrak.
Furthermore you wouldn’t actually go the whole way on Amtrak but portion of the route would actually be by Greyhound. And Greyhound sucks!
Not many besides people in New England commuting between big cities.
I enjoyed the scenic ride on the coast starlight. Oakland down to LA along the coast. Amazing views. Dining car was fun as well as the observation car. Wasn’t all that expensive either.
But that was at least 20 years ago.
In America, rail is used mainly for cargo. Passenger service simply has little to no public (government) support. It means Amtrak must buy land and build and maintain their own rail line, all without government assistance.
Whereas airports are built and maintained from Federal funds, and interstate highways are supported with Federal funds as well. So Amtrak is literally on their own with transport that few will take but their expenses are through the roof.
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Buyin land is great business. Im not sure about the us, but my island in canada, slightly smaller than taiwan, owns all the mineral rights. they have a lot of side hustles, they aint making money on single fare tickets to be sure.
But i too found tickets cheap in the US. However taiwans rail system is lightyears ahead.
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US used to be the world leader when it comes to railroad. It had more miles of railroads than all other countries in the world.
But when air travel took off, rail travel sank.