Building high-speed rail (HSR) creates a lot more jobs than spending on new roads (.PDF) and fights sprawl. It is safe. It uses much less gas than air travel and can potentially be almost as fast. The problem is that it needs its own rails:
Where intercity passenger trains compete with freight – in most of the country these days, excluding the NEC – “Amtrak can only run a handful of trains per day because they’re leasing space on a freight railroad that doesn’t keep the schedules,” said Petra Todorovich, an expert on high-speed rail with the nonprofit America 2050. “When [freight trains] fill up their cargo from the yard, then they leave the yard. So Amtrak is trying to run passenger trains on a schedule on tracks that are owned by a railroad that doesn’t keep a schedule.”
That’s why rail service in much of the country has been infrequent and unreliable and has been in a poor position to compete with private automobiles or air travel. Amtrak continues to run those lines as a public service, in many cases mandated by Congress – but they’re not profitable or efficient. (Emphasis mine)
Regional lines should resemble the BART system or MARC, two trains I’ve ridden that move lots of people every day. The idea of changing trains doesn’t scare me, and I wish I could continue the journey and get to anywhere in America at that speed. To get anywhere in the lower 48 in one day, much less turn a profit, requires that people be able to rely on schedules — “making the trains run on time” is about taking care of business.
The $53 billion plan will move in stages, and be subject to second-guessing all that time. In fact, it already does. The red lines on the White House’s map of that network go through New Hampshire, where opponents are already hard at work derailing things:
A group of Republican House members is trying to eliminate the state’s Rail Transit Authority.
A bill that will be considered today by the House Transportation Committee would repeal the authority, which was created three years ago to explore bringing passenger rail to central New Hampshire.
“The problem is rail transit is a boondoggle, and especially unsuitable for a rural state like New Hampshire,” said Rep. Dan McGuire, an Epsom Republican and the bill’s primary sponsor. “Rail doesn’t attract any more passengers than buses do, and it costs a significant amount more.”
Dan McGuire wants to disband a volunteer organization that doesn’t cost the taxpayer one thin dime. His motivation has everything to do with obstruction; he’s a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus, a libertarian group active in tea parties. Which is ironic, as I suspect Dagny Taggart would fight him.
But even assuming the plan goes ahead as drawn up on the White House’s map, bear in mind that its ambition is to have in 2036 what China has today.
