Recent Political Compromises Have Killed High Speed Rail -- And We Are All Poorer as a Result

A political development that has a direct bearing on travel was the recent elimination from the federal budget of $1.4 billion for high speed rail. In the negotiations between the White House and Congress to choose the appropriations to be eliminated, as part of a deficit-cutting agreement to shave $38 billion from the budget, high speed rail was apparently an easy sacrificial lamb.

What a terrible commentary on the decisions we make for the future of our country. As nations all over the world speed their development of high speed rail, directly benefiting their economies and growth, we remain wedded to the highway as the prime means of transportation -- and these are roads increasingly jammed and slowed with gas-guzzling cars. As countries like Brazil make the rail improvements that will eventually transform them into a super-power, we continue to slide backwards.

Whenever I write about the urgent necessity of improving our rail system, I receive comments from various world-weary readers, gently chiding me for my unrealistic adherence to discredited programs. America, they claim, just isn't suited for high speed rail. What works so well in China, Russia, and Western Europe, they claim, just won't succeed in our own, lightly-populated country of over 300 million (and soon, by the year 2040, to be 400 million) people increasingly clustered in great urban areas.

Those protestors might be interested to follow the recent decisions by U.S. governors of similar outlooks, who have radically changed their tune about the development of rail systems and high speed rail in particular. Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, who last year blocked a plan to build new railway tunnels under the Hudson River, is now seeking $570 million in federal funds to replace a century-old bridge over the Hackensack River that is a bottle-neck to the operation of high-speed trains. Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is seeking $150 million to improve rail connections between Milwaukee and Chicago. Sooner or later, those critics of rail development see the light. How long will it be before the state of Florida seeks federal support for high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando?

I hope you will join with me in urging representatives in Congress to restore high speed rail as an urgent goal of our nation. I hope that, as advocates of sensible travel, you will take the political steps necessary to restore a sense of urgency about the development of high-speed rail between urban centers in the United States.