Map Enthusiasts

And still here in Europe they are not a meaningful alternative to the plane. Taking for example an Amsterdam to Barcelona is an exhausting 12-14h deal (almost 10x as long) and 5x more expensive.

What we need is express trains that go from A to B without stopping anywhere, avoiding city centres and constantly running max speed. If I'm going to Barcelona I don't want to stop in Schiphol, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, and various cities in France. There should just be a dedicated departure just for that (and judging by how many planes go back & forth daily these trains could certainly be filled). This would cut down on that exhausting travel time a lot. But we lack the high-speed network capacity for that. And won't have it for at least 15 years even if they decided to build them now :( So planes it is.

My goodness. Never realized Europe had such a train problem!

Plate glass vs laminated glass

It gets cut off here, but Estonia only has like 4 lines or something, all from the capital in the north. No interconnection between the other cities except through the capital, and for two of the lines about 30 km away from the capital. It really sucks, I wish there was more and I'm also hoping for Rail Baltica to be ready sooner rather than later. And I REALLY wish there was a way to connect Tartu, Viljandi and Pärnu to each other directly - right now you have to make a near 200 km detour to get between the first two, and Pärnu is disconnected altogether until Rail Baltica is finished, the Tallinn-Pärnu line is dead. Sadly though, that dream route of mine (which would connect two culturally significant cities (Tartu and Viljandi) to each other and to the future Rail Baltica line in a slightly less detour-y fashion) will likely never exist because of all the wetlands in between those cities. I am glad they're being preserved, but... trains would be nice.

Is this joke?

And Europe is zoomed in too

That’s basically all of Canada’s lines too. Our East/West line and the Polar Bear Express is that little line at the top of Ontario.

Population Density in the United States vs Europe

I mean I'd love more trains in the US, but let's not oversimplify.