You have to take into account though the size of the US. Even if you do not include the states of Alaska and Hawaii it is still almost twice the size of the entire EU. At the time it was more economical for a European country to invest in rail since you could go from one end of a country and back in a day. Over here at the time it was more economical to invest in airline travel. Like I said before it is coming back to haunt us now but I can understand where they were coming from at the time.
You're correct - the overall heavier population density in Europe means passenger rail had an easier time surviving the onset of the automobile. However, the ironic thing is that even 50 years ago, the USA still had an extensive passenger rail network (run by the same companies that now run the freight) - it largely withered because of the building of the freeways & mass production of the car made that option more economical & convenient (and fashionable). I know plenty of people here, who've never set foot on a train! Even more ironic than that - the railroads were one of the tools that built the US, allowing the expansion to the west & allowing the products of industry/agriculture to be made easily available across the country.
The bombs we're in Madrid, in this units. Al-Qaeda set up 3 bombs in three poor neighborhood stations, which are the ones that use the train most, rich people use cars (expensive cars): Plus, two years ago, there was an accident in the Valencian railway, a 3600 Line 1 unit made in 1970 got outiside of the track inside a tunnel in Valencia, and 45 people died and 150 got injured, both the driver and the driving assistant died too. Why? Well, the train was circulating at 80 KM/H at a track made for 40 KM/H, through 1890 tracks and withoth any security measures, using a broken train from 1970 and well... It was an accumulation of bad stuff that caused that dissaster. The driver going too much fast, the track being in horrible state and the train being in horrible state too. The unit which fell over was one of those: It's very sad how the FGV (Valencian State Railways in English) only invests money in the lines that tourists are supposed to see. Lines which go to the beach, lines which go to the Formula 1 circuit or lines which go to the nautical club and the America's Cup. Those lines circulate with brand new stations, tracks, and hiper-technology 2007 and 2008 trains. Instead, the trains which go from the suburbs or from poor neighborhoods like mine, to the downtown for taking people to work and back from work to home have no invest, they circulate with one hundred years old tracks outside of tunnels, they have third world security measures, trains are repainted very old trains, etc. What is more of a laugh is the line between Alacant and Dènia, that one circulates with 1960's diesel units and 1940-1970's trenet units with the eletric motor removed and with a diesel motor installed. Trams and trenet from 60 years ago which should be in museums are in horrible condition, filled with graffitti, etc, there are even STEAM machines going in that line for manteinance, the stationguard has to change the track direction, etc. It's ridiculous. EDIT: That statement applies if you're talking about trains going from side to side of the continent, I'm talking about urban trains, those trains maybe don't do more than 600 or 700 kilometers, and between those all the towns are connected by train withouth any problems to the nearest city. The only excuse is the incredibly cheap price of gas in the last decades in the US and the cost of electrificating all the lines, if they are even electrificated. Lines here are electrificated since IX century.
Cheap gas was just one (albeit a large one) cause that lead to the death of US passenger rail. At the end of the day it was a number of problems factored into what it is today. Death by a thousand cuts. This article gives some good insight into some of the problems. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amtrak Some other interesting info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_usage_statistics_by_country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_transport_network_size
