Quote:
Originally Posted by SFBruin
This is true. I think that an independent system could exist in the Midwest and do quite well though.
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As well as England?
Let's look at the geographic area and population of Great Britian (England, Wales, and Scotland) and compare that to the Midwest (in this example, justWisconisn, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan). Maybe we should drop Michigan, but many Amtrak trains head there just like the other included States.
All data per Wiki
Great Britain area 80,823 sq. miles, 60,800,000 population, density 782 /sq mile (I calculate 752 / sq mile but who's to argue with data posted at Wiki), with the largest city (London) 8,615,246 comprising 14%.
Midwest area 256,547 sq. miles, 35,141,600 population, density 137 / sq mile, with the largest city (Chicago) 9,472,676 comprising 27%.
FYI, here's the data for all of the States included above individually.
Wisconsin is 5,778,708 and 65,498 sq miles,
Illinois is 12,801,539 and 57,915 sq miles,
Indiana is 6,633,053 and 36,418 sq miles,
and Michigan is 9,928,300 and 96,716 sq miles.
Great Britain has almost twice the population and almost a quarter of the area as my example States for the Midwest - with six times the population density.