bigkid posted:China has the rural population you are talking about, and the Chinese have built quite a few rail lines from the cities to the rural areas, both high and low speed. Obviously, that is heavily subsidized by the government, but they have reasons to do that, they don't have the highway system the US does and air travel is very expensive for people living in those areas.
The reason that doesn't compare at all is that Chinese citizens don't travel nearly as much as Americans do. I know someone who spent his first 30 years in China and he said nobody in the town he lived in ever travelled more than 20-30 miles in their lifetimes that he knew of except for those who were drafted/enlisted in the military.
