>>1289293I can agree that steam locomotives are kinda neat. They're a relic of the past, neat for a railtour or a heritage excursion along a rarely used line, or a line which maybe saw passenger use long ago, before it was converted into a freight line when the new high speed line opened, taking all the passenger traffic with it, but steam locomotives are just that, a relic. They're dirty, they leave soot and ash particulates in the air, they're often energy inefficient and they are also incredibly expensive to keep legally working (steam locomotives have a boiler license which only lasts for a limited amount of years before the boiler must be overhauled and then inspected for safety).
I have no issue with preseriving old steam locomotives, and I have no issue with a handful of them being used for occational services, but they are most certainly the trains of the past, and the future is already here, and has been here for the last 20 years. Japan, France, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Spain, Italy, Belgium. They all have significant HSR networks with regional lines providing connections between towns and major cities. As HSR grows, the mainlines they replace will become freight lines, allowing for more and more containerised frieght to move by rail, not road.
