Have a look at this map. I cannot include it here because I cannot get it large enough to be clearly legible. What you're looking at is a map of the proposed high-speed rail corridors that are supposedly going to be financed with stimulus package money. Can anyone say "hurrah!" How about: "It's about frigging time."
I'm actually getting a little ahead of myself. The fact is none of this is a done deal. The White House is giving high-speed rail considerable thought. But Obama is a smart guy, and the time could not be more right. High-speed rail, a reality in most developed countries, is described as "an initiative long on planning but unrealized nationally because of financial and logistical hurdles and insufficient political backing." A familiar litany, no?
Restoration of nationwide US passenger rail service, once the envy of the entire world, is something that's been overdue for twenty years, or longer. (Tell me about your last pleasant airline experience.) It appears that only a monumental catastrophe like the one we're in now could make it possible. And even the chance that Oklahoma will be on the Houston-San Antonio-Tulsa corridor just tickles me plumb to death.
4 comments:
Yeah but the entire western US, with the exception of the seaboard over there, and all the plains are left out. That's a huge chunk. Plus, only TWO into Canada? A bit disappointing too, because all of the eastern seaboard is interconnected, but all the other rails are closed loops.
I guess we need to start somewhere. Sigh.
The corridors are connecting the areas most likely to be most crucial in the still-evolving new economy, which is going to be about information, high tech, and innovation. Not manufactures, not corn, not hogs. Hence the configuration you see. Not to mention population.
The high speed corridors do not mean no rail service, just no 150 mph trains.
They've been funding the California line for a while now. They just passed another 8 gabillion dollar bill in the fall (another something we really can't afford). I'm glad to see that Obama is making this a nationwide project. If they can get it built, it will be really cool. My dad lives in San Diego and there is no really great way to get there. This would make it much easier.
Well, from what I've read since I posted this, we may be a little premature in celebrating the return of rail. I think the amount is paltry, about $8 billion, and it was added at the last minute by the White House.
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