An argument for high-speed rail

It's the fact track for high-speed trains - Opinion

It's the fact track for high-speed trains
Ian Jacobs
Issue date: 4/22/09 Section: Opinion


America's train system has been traveling in slow motion for too long.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama unveiled a plan to build high-speed rail across the country. The plan calls for $8 billion in stimulus funding, along with a request for $5 billion more over the next five years, to be spent on building new high-speed railroads to connect 10 corridors the government as branded, including a San Francisco-Los Angeles line.

California is already eager to get to work, having passed a $10 billion bond issue for high-speed rail last November.

The construction of high-speed rail throughout the United States is long over due. Japan first built it in the '60s for the Olympics and Europe finished theirs in the late '70s.

It's a sad state of affairs that this country is planning for high-speed rail now, a year away from 2010. By the time the first bullet train is ready to ride, it will be over five decades since Japans was completed.

That's a pathetic statistic.

The high-speed rail will come with the green movement that's sweeping the nation.

People find it hard to argue with Obama's idea, due to growing road congestion, the constant ebb and flow of gas prices and growing awareness of global warming being so prevalent. Transportation officials across the country are jumping for joy and looking at possible cities they can make bullet train connections with.

Opponents argue that building high-speed rail is pointless and a waste of money because trains in America are rarely used, but with faster travel over long distances, this argument will be moot. It will be hard to argue against a comfortable and quick train ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco, around two and a half hours at top speeds of 220 mph. With less hassle than getting onto a plane, or the six-hour car ride down Interstate Highway 5, high-speed rail will have a good chance to compete against air travel.

It is an exciting time for transportation in America. If car companies can get their act together and start producing the hybrid vehicles and solar panels become prevalent throughout our country, the U.S. should get back on the right track.
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