America’s government-run passenger rail service, Amtrak, has unveiled a US$117 billion vision of future trains traveling 220 mph in the Northeast corridor of the US. It would reduce travel times by half.
Only one problem:
“There’s one major problem with Amtrak’s ambitions: there’s no money to pay for any of this, and there’s not enough political will to force it through,” writes The Economist.
Fundamentally, without major government commitments to high-speed rail, America simply will not have a high-speed passenger rail network, the site says.
Every other major superpower such as the EU, Japan and China have high-speed rail networks.
Political will might be garnered if US proponents would argue the system is needed for security reasons.
“America’s interstate highway system, the infrastructure marvel of its time, was built in large part to move troops around the country — and evacuate cities in advance of a nuclear attack. A similar argument, focusing on air travel’s dependence on foreign oil, could potentially make inroads with the some conservatives,” said the site.
They conclude:
“That makes America look a bit backward. The time horizon for building such a network is several decades, and it’s interesting to think about what will happen in the middle decades of this century if air transport becomes unaffordable due to high fuel costs and America doesn’t have an electric alternative for high-speed intercity transit.”
By David Wilkening
