Governments should spend money on railways rather than roads To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement

Regardly to the country you live in, you may or may not easily use the train instead of using a personal car. I can only talk about my own experience in France where the railway network is quite developped and practical.

Travelling by train is, in my opinion, more economic on the long term than having a car which needs fuel, insurance and regular controls. It is also more ecological as are public transportations in general. At last, it is also practical because the train is most of the time faster than a car and because there is no traffic jams on the railroads. In addition to that, I personally think that a train trip is more enjoyable because you can rest or read – impossible things when you drive.

For all these reasons, I prefer travelling by train than by car so I agree with the idea that governments should invest in railways rather than roads. A government is supposed to take care of its citizens and to maintain a suitable economic level. I think travelling by train is really safer than travelling by car and that’s one of the reasons why governments should encourage people to use trains.
Furthermore, governments are more and more concerned about global warming and their actions can influence the future events. Investing in railways is a way of promoting train trips and it can be part of the solution to reduce the human activities impact on the climate changes.

On the contrary, if governments invest in roads, that would encourage people to use their personal car, which is eco-unfriendly and not very economic. The USA don’t really look concerned about pollution problems and that may be a reason why they didn’t sign the Kyoto Protocol. Then, it is not very surprising that the american railway network isn’t very important nor efficient. The size of the country, of course, doesn’t help, but another big country, India, has a significant usage of trains. India has probably an important railway network for economical reasons.

To conclude, as well for ecological reasons as for economical ones, I think governments should invest in railways rather than roads. I for one reckon that it would be a responsible choice for future generations.