“What about Europe?” people often ask when I critique rail transit or high-speed rail. “Why can’t passenger trains work here as well as they work there?” We can answer this question with the help of the recently released EU Transport in Figures, published by the European Commission.
Click image to download a four-page PDF of this policy brief.
As my friend Wendell Cox observed, this publication, which is based on 2016 data, shows that Europe and the United States are “more similar than different.” In both areas, he notes, the automobile is the dominant form of transport, accounting for 78.8 percent of passenger miles in the U.S. and 72.4 percent in Europe. Other modes also have similar shares of travel with the exception of rail, which is 6.7 percent in Europe but only 0.5 percent in the United States. In general, concludes Cox, Europe “is more like the United States than many retro-urbanists, not to mention casual tourists, assume.” Continue reading
