We all live in a world that is essentially much smaller today than it was even 20 years ago. Physically, the size of the world remains the same as we know, but through the internet and cellphones, the virtual world has shrunk, allowing people to stay in touch more easily, business transactions to be processed more quickly, and the overall reach of individuals and businesses to extend beyond the borders of the countries they were once confined to. As the virtual world has shrunk, some countries have kept up with shrinking the physical world through the construction of high speed train lines that allow people to travel more quickly from one side of a country to another and beyond. None of these countries include the United States. France, China, Brazil, and Russia are a few that recognize the importance of high speed train lines, some like France having had high speed trains traveling across their country for over a decade now. High speed train lines not only allow people to travel more quickly between destinations, but they also allow for the increased speed of transporting commercial goods that help businesses survive. Being able to carry many more tons than a big rig truck and less costly than air travel, they can reduce the cost of transporting goods across a country and thus have an impact on the prices that we buy these goods for.
The United States government however, is severly cutting any funding that was going to assist individual states and businesses in developing and constructing these high speed train lines. California has been planning a high speed train line from San Francisco and Sacramento all the way to San Diego. Currently, the price tag is exessive and with that state's budget faltering greatly, it doesn't look like it will happen any time soon. There were other plans in place in Florida, but those got side-tracked as well. The most promising at this point, costing potentially the least amount of money is making improvements to the rail lines in the Northeast on which the Acela trains run, Amtrak's fastest train to date. Would it be capable of reaching the limits of high speed trains in other countries? No, but improvements could allow it to increase its speed in certain sections from 130 mph to 160 mph. There are broader plans in place to eventually connect the entire United States with a system of high speed trains. As with anything in the United States, local opposition to high speed trains is excessive as with anything new that attempts to get rolled out. The mentality of a lot of people is, "That's nice, but not in my backyard." This is one of the best ways to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and reduce congestion on our freeways. With a system of high speed trains throughout our country, people and goods could travel more quickly and efficiently and there would ultimately be fewer cars on the road.
But alas, our government and a good part of our population has their heads stuck in mud, or oil I should say, and refuse to look into the future and the best way to get there. A year after Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico and ensuing oil spill, there is a general consensus amongst Americans that we should get back to drilling for oil so that we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil. What they don't realize is that we import at least 90% of the oil currently used in this country so increasing drilling really won't make that much of a difference. On top of that, our government would rather keep sinking money into military operations that focus some of those funds on improving our infrastructure and transportation system. Does our government need to make cuts? Yes, and there are a number of ways they can do this as I have been discussing time and time again so I will not go over all of them again. Suffice it to say that cutting funding for any sort of transportation overhaul or investment in our future such as high speed rail lines is the wrong area to cut as it will only solve the short term issue leaving us with more expensive overhauls in the future. Trains are one of the most cost effective ways of transporting people and goods across the land. Maybe one day the mentality of Americans will change, but unfortunately it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon. For now, check out the plans for high speed trains in the U.S. and speak up in support of them.
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