Comment by cameldrv
20 hours ago
The European mind does not comprehend how big and sparsely populated the American West is. You can't even pitch a tent in most places in the Alps, and why would you, when you just stop at a hut that has a staff and you can get fed and sleep in bunks with 20 other people? Meanwhile I can drive to numerous places where there isn't a structure or even another person in a 20km radius. No one is going to run a train to a place like that.
You're describing places that have few people and hence few car trips. Most car trips, even in the US, take place in densely populated areas.
The point of public transit isn't to handle 100% of all trips. It's to handle the most common trips in a more efficient and scalable way.