Travel by train in US.mp3

Travel by train in US

Hearing world, unlimited fantasy, welcome to the radio station of XXMU, and are you ready to start today’s journey to the west? I’m your tour guide Tony.Let’s suppose you are now in Los Angeles, United States and you want to go to New York City. By what will you travel to save money? Train, car, or Plane? Did I hear some of you saying train? Surprisingly that’s a wrong answer. Want to know why? After the song, please stay tuned.

Believe it or not, comparing to flying, taking a train costs not only more time, but also more money. From Los Angeles, about 4000 kilometers, flying costs about 200 dollars if you book early and takes about 5 hours, by driving you need to drive for 40 hours and pay approximately 200 dollars on gasoline, but when it comes to train, I’m sure the data will sure surprise you: it takes about 60 hours and costs more than a thousand dollars! Trains in America is totally different from what’s in China, right? No wonder it is called the four new inventions of China.

Let me first explain why it is so slow. Unlike China, US is called United states, which means the country is created by states connecting to each other, and every individual state is still quite isolated. By which I mean it’s hard for them to think together to build a railway together, as they cannot foresee the prospect. Moreover, due to geography reasons, in America most population are crowded in the eastern and western, which makes the rural area in the middle almost empty. So if a rail is established, the middle part will be wasted. In conclusion, the railway is still too old comparing to the high speed railway. Moreover, the engine of the train is still from World War II, so the fastest it can  go is about 100 km/h. No wonder it takes so long time!

And the reason of the high price also have a B-Side. First is because there really aren’t so many people taking trains, which makes the company have no choice but to add more pressure on individuals to avoid deficit. But thanks to that, there are much more space on the train for everyone to enjoy. Compare to the plane or the CRH train, you really can’t call the seat “Seat”, it’s more like a sofa. Wider, softer, and everyone have a individual seat faced to window. They even offer private rooms with bathroom and shower inside, and you can even carry a bicycle onboard! The view outside is also beautiful, as the route it picks is either next to the coastline or between the snow-capped mountains.

So in conclusion, the purpose of the trains in not for daily commuting, but for tourist sightseeing. And now we’ve come to the end of today’s journey. If you have something to share with us, please contact us via the official Wechat account, follow the topic Be in English in our QQ number. I’m Tony. See you next Tuesday, bye.