Trains...

I'm writing this while on an Amtrak train (yeah, some of them have wifi now), and I've realized something (not for the first time) a bit disturbing. The first steam-powered locomotive was demonstrated in 1804, over 200 years ago. But still after two centuries the best form of transportation for passengers around cities and for large cargoes over land is the train. Sure, there have been numerous advancements made to the propulsion system (gasoline-powered, electric-powered, maglev), but come on. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing the train. It was an amazing invention and still is today. My bigger issue is two-fold. First, it seems that most transportation-related inventions since have been passenger-centric. Cars and planes, for the most part, can't transport large quantities of materials. They're very good at moving people, fairly efficiently and very quickly. But with some cargo trains stretching for a mile or more, you'd need a significant amount of cargo planes to match. And for trucks the ratio is probably much, much worse. On top of that the energy consumption by a train for such cargo is almost definitely significantly lower (I'm guessing, but it seems to make sense, otherwise we would just build lots of giant cargo planes). Why hasn't the human race thought of a better system of cargo transportation yet? Granted, the only one I can think of would be a large system of tubes (like mail-chutes used in large office buildings), but I feel even something like that would be more efficient and faster to boot. Sure the infrastructure to set that up would be expensive, but I think it'd pay out in the long run (just like the rail system did).

My second issue is with the passenger trains used in cities. What happened to all those sci-fi books and shows that had tube transport for people throughout cities? Is it too dangerous? Too difficult? Possibly, but I don't think so. Are these advancements not being made because the majority of the human race has settled into a state of stagnation. No new ideas, just improve on the old ones as best we can. That's not good, and it's easy to see in other areas of our culture. Hopefully it doesn't stay that way.