500 miles on Amtrak east coast can take about 10 hours! I’m doing it again in a few weeks. That’s just so dumb slow embarrassing.
And more expensive than flying a good chunk of the time!
Rail is more expensive than flying in China and Europe as well. It’s slower and costs more, but the experience is normal and dignified instead of airport security and aeroplane seats and Boeing quality pressurisation. It’s also better for the environment and the senses of anyone unlucky enough to live close to a terminal.
See I agree, but Boston-New York and New York-DC are still very competitive with driving and flying, if only because their respective airports are so far from the city itself.
Once the US has one working world-class HSR line (probably Brightline West, or possibly CAHSR), the appetite for more lines will increase. HSR will have become something that is common for Americans to ride when not on holiday to Japan or Italian hilltop towns, and reflexively dismissing it as “it wouldn’t work here because we have too much (space/liberty/big cars)” won’t work anymore. New plans will be proposed (a midwest network connecting Chicago to Cleveland and St. Louis?) and old ones (such as the Texas one) dusted off. And the Canadians will notice and jump on the bandwagon (given that a big chunk of their population would be reached by a line from Detroit/Windsor to Quebec City makes it a no-brainer).
I’m cautiously optimistic that the burger empire will embrace HSR like the rest of the advanced world. America’s competition is no longer the Soviet Union, but China.
I’m not optimistic that that will happen under the next Biden or Trump administration. US corporate media avoid mentioning China’s HSR, but they can’t keep things under the rug forever.
Sigh, I wish we had HSR here in Canada.
The chain of cities from Detroit to Québec City really looks like it should be a prime candidate for HSR.
Yes
Way way past time. It should have been a natural progression from first laying tracks to a nationwide high speed grid.
He gives lots of reasons, but if one of them isn’t “oil-producing countries are starting to escape US hegemony and your gas-guzzling motor industry is on borrowed time” then I don’t think he’s really appealing to the US government’s interests.
Removed by mod
Dividing America by building infrastructure instead of dumping trillions of dollars into the next military superproject.
