‘Hey America, Make With the !@~$ High-Speed Rail Already’

I want my country to develop a high-speed rail system. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives transportation committee want it. According to the AP, Amtrak president Alex Kummant testified to the rail subcommittee yesterday that he’s “enthusiastic about a major high-speed corridor.” Chances are you want high-speed rail, too, whether you’re a resident of the U.S. or a traveler who visits the country and ends up spending 12 hours on a train from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Yet, nothing happens. Actually, there’s something happening. In China.

China Daily reports this week that Beijing Municipality and Hebei Province are teaming up on $10.9 billion expansion of a rail network, which will include trains that can reach up to 217 miles per hour. It’s scheduled for completion by 2010.

How frustrated are you with the situation in the U.S.?

It’s a national shame that the U.S. doesn’t have a high-speed rail system. Of course, the bureaucratic impediments are daunting, but how long must we go on agreeing that the country needs a system without agreeing on how to go about building one? David Wolman’s story in Wired, the provocatively titled Hey America, Make With the !@~$ High-Speed Rail Already, outlines the situation. He concludes: “If the country has a prayer of solving its traffic woes and creating a more efficient, environmentally sound infrastructure, we’ll need some first-rate, wicked-fast trains.”

Wolman points to California as the big test for high-speed rail in the U.S. The big obstacle, as we posted last month: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Elsewhere, the AP reports that Amtrak has entered into a partnership with GrandLuxe Rail Journeys. It’s the first time the national U.S. railroad is providing regularly scheduled private rail services. GrandLuxe will attach cars to regularly scheduled trains, so while you won’t be able to get from, say, Washington D.C. to Chicago at high speeds, you will soon be able to get there while eating five-course meals and having a personal butler. At least the very rich will be able to do that.

Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black says the venture is expected to be a moneymaker. Is it too much to hope those profits will go toward a high-speed rail solution?

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