In case you missed it, last week Obama and Biden came out with their plan for implementing high speed rail in the US. I am very excited by this proposal and feel that the US is far behind other developed countries in implementing inter city rail. Admittedly, our continent size geography and urban history make inter city rail less practical than most European countries or Japan, but I feel that there is already enough demand to utilize it in certain parts of the country and Obama's 'corridor' plan takes this into account.
It appears to me that the initial $8 billion will go towards improving existing infrastructure to let current generation trains run at their top speeds (around 110 mph). Normally, I would say this is a waste, but it only seems practical since we're so far behind and it will probably require an investment 10 times as large to implement a comprehensive high speed system. My only complaint is that I would prefer to see the focus made on a couple of high priority corridors instead of eleven. In particular, the Northeast Corridor (Boston to DC; I now I'm biased!), should be a model for the country due to its high density cities and relatively short distances. Getting the Acela up to 150 mph for the entire route could virtually eliminate air travel among several of the US' largest cities. I also think California needs a high speed line between the Bay Area and LA and their plan seems to be very well thought out and could accomodate train speeds up to 220 mph.
For more details go here (thanks to Sanjay for sending me the links originally).
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