Last week, in Obama’s State of the Union Address, he stressed how the United States must “out innovate, out educate and out build” in order to “win the future”. Living in such a competitive time, Obama believes we must advance in our technology and research in order to compete with such countries as China and India. One way he wishes to do so is by building high-speed rail. While I agree that innovation is key for such competitive world we live in, I do not necessarily think high-speed trains are worth it. He mentions how China “is building faster trains”, and calls to the attention that we Americans, who first built the transcontinental railroad, must improve our system. He states, “Within 25 years our goal is to give 80% of Americans access to high speed rail.” While it would be nice or cool to have the fastest trains in the world, I do not believe it would be that beneficial. In fact, with so many alternate ways to get to work, many people don’t even use the trains that much. Yes, there are definitely some who ride the train to work everyday. Yet, with all of the highways that are easily accessible and our extensive airport system, train travel seems to be fine as it is. It’s sufficient enough, in my opinion.
“Walker argued that Wisconsin didn't need $810 billion for a 78-mile line between Madison and Milwaukee because there's already a transportation artery — Interstate 94 — that enables people to get from one city to the other in a little more than an hour."
And for us Chicagoans, we should “consider the $1.1 billion track improvement on the Chicago-St. Louis line in Illinois. It would reduce travel time between the cities by 48 minutes, but the trip would still take over four and a half hours at an average speed of 62 miles per hour.”
Driving to St. Louis really doesn’t take much longer than this proposed train system. Although I frequently drive there for field hockey tournaments, I’m not quite sure if a good amount of people travel between the two cities enough for it to be beneficial.
Therefore, I do not think it would be worth the money to create the fastest trains. However, maybe if I rode the train more often I would think differently. I would be curious to see what other people think, or how much a difference you think it would make?
This is an interesting post! I am not a fan of an American high speed rail. Most americans in major cities get to work by car, with the exception of New York City (http://www.infrastructurist.com/2010/02/18/how-do-americans-get-to-work-transit-patterns-in-major-cities/). In China, according to (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/news/energy/2011/01/010511-china-traffic-greener-transit/), people have fewer cars and a more substantial pollution problem. I see how the high speed rail is beneficial there. While people are still hungary and schools are still insufficient, I would rather see American dollars go to more immediate issues.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. Thanks for sending me this. It would be such a detriment to our economy when we are already in debt. It is not an investment that we can afford right now.
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