Obviously, the title is a misnomer. High Speed Rail has the potential to revitalize train travel as an affordable alternative to air travel, and as a tall man, anything we can do to encourage less travel in those sardine cans is fine by me. But the real point isn’t about us, it’s about what we buy. We’re Americans aren’t we?
Perusing Reddit today, I came across this article from the Economist expressing concern over America’s rush towards high speed rail (or rather, ourtalking about going to high speed rail).
The emergence of express intercity rail services may cause the freight railways the biggest problem of all…The trouble for the freight railways is that almost all the planned new fast intercity services will run on their tracks. Combining slow freight and fast passenger trains is complicated.
The article talks about a few other large points, and I learned quite a bit about the American freight rail system. We have the best freight system in the world (recognized in the industry) and this industry does face a threat from high speed rail.
I’m not arguing for or against high speed rail, and I don’t think that Governor Walker sending federal funds for a Wisconsin HSR system back to the fed was a good idea, but its important to keep in mind the extreme challenges and problems with implementing high speed rail.
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