Every Traveler Heavily Depends on Great Transportation Infrastructure

Born in the slums of Manila near the railroad tracks, my favorite mode of transportation had been the vintage jeepney that became popular after the war. Since I migrated to the US, RVed the continent, and traveled the world, I have experienced other transportation infrastructure that serves each traveler well. Here are the best and our favorites: the roads of America and the railways of Europe.

The Great North American Road Network

Our eight years of RVing full-time in the US, Canada, and Mexico gave us great experiences on the great North American road network. The largest component is the US highway system, the most extensive in the world. Today it constitutes about 165,000 miles of roads. 90% of US tourist traffic is carried in the system.

This is complemented north of the US by the Trans-Canada Highway, Canada’s transcontinental federal-provincial system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Atlantic in the east. The main road spans 4,860 miles across the country, one of the longest of its type in the world.

And, in the south, the roadway network in Mexico also does not disappoint, especially with the concretization of Hwy 15 that connects to Arizona. There are 72,577 paved miles, making it the largest paved network in Latin America, 6,508 miles of which are multi-lane expressways, including six-lane ones.

This great North American road system is complemented by a network of campgrounds and motels/hotels that provide lodging options with no equal in the world. Road travel in America is ultra-convenient. In addition, RV models range from small camper vans to huge luxury motorhomes. We also experienced the same satisfaction in the Australian road network.  

The Reliable European Railway System

The European Railway system consists of the following:

Tier One: Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and France.

Tier Two: Great Britain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, the Czech Republic, Norway, Belgium, and Italy.

 

Tier Three: Lithuania, Slovenia, Ireland, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Bulgaria.

 

We have used all seven in the Tier One systems, six of the eight Tier Two, and three of the ten Tier Three. We especially loved our train travels through Llubijana and Bled in Slovenia, Vienna, Salzburg, and Innsbruck in Austria, Munich and Oberstaufen in Germany, St. Gallen in Switzerland, Vaduz in Lichtenstein, Paris in France, and Brussels in Belgium. We covered all of that in four weeks and a half.

We have tried economy and first-class trains, taking us to small towns and big cities. The rail network is seamlessly interconnected to buses, taxis, and Ubers. Not a single train ride was late or canceled. The stations were sometimes airport-like in the big cities. In the small towns, quaint little shops are built around them as walking malls. I love train travel in Europe.

Bill did, too, because he did not have to worry about driving and enjoyed the scenic views of country and city life that unfolded before us: dwarf apple trees, tiny garden sheds, rolling hillsides, etc. Sometimes, the wide windows can even be opened for a better camera shot. We enjoyed the bars and dining cars, too. I even found comfort food for my upset tummy on a train ride between Innsbruck and Vienna.  Trains were certainly better than driving rental cars on the other lane and on narrow roads of the UK.  

The airline industry has successfully introduced more flights and even budget ones in Europe and the US. They are getting popular, too. But my husband and I will always prefer to travel across America by road and Europe by train!

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