We at Railpass.com never thought we would see the day where high-speed rail would actually create a bit of a "stir" here in the United States media. But, thanks to President Obama's $8 billion high-speed rail initiative, the blogosphere was all in a tizzy about the latest way our President is spending taxpayer dollars.
A few of our favorite snippets from the online debate on the $8 billion project:
The Good: "So feel good about this, taxpayers. It's money well spent." Ryan Avent, The Road to Rail
The Bad: "High Speed Rail: A Genuinely Horrible Idea." Richard Nadler from a post of the same name
The Reality: "While improving America’s trains has never seemed to be a higher political priority than it is now, it’s going to take more than this down payment to get Americans on board with truly high-speed trains." Matthew Calcara, All Aboard for American High-Speed Rail?
So here's the thing, while Nadler may be correct in saying that genuine high-speed rail is expensive to develop and maintain, he fails to acknowledge that the same is true of our existing interstate highway system. With a price tag of $115 billion (and counting!), and costs of maintenance growing each year (thanks for those toll and gas tax hikes, by the way!), the current road infrastructure is just as - if not more - costly than the high-speed rail project proposed yesterday by the President.
And, while Nadler again makes a valid point that the significant difference between US and EU carbon emissions from freight transport is in jeopardy of shrinking (America is currently about 20% more efficient than Europe in this category) as a result of the high-speed rail initiative, he omits the improvement in the current carbon emissions due to passenger road traffic and passenger air traffic that will also materialize with the development of new rail lines within the country. Check out Bradford Plumer's blog for more on this topic....
Is it just me, or does Nadler's math remind you of Voodoo Economics? Something just doesn't add up....
Anyway, we NEED to start investing in rail here in the United States. We are light years behind the rest of the world in this department, and we have the carbon footprint to prove it. Although it is a big-ticket item, wouldn't you rather spend the money on something you (and your children, and you children's children.....) can actually utilize, something that will improve the environment, and something that will make travel easier? If you ask me, I'll take this over an AIG bailout any day!
