High Speed Rail

High Speed Rail continues to spread in Europe. In fact, Europe is developing the best of both worlds, low-cost air travel for longer distances and high speed rail for shorter distances. The break point is six hours for non-business and four hours for business travelers. It's not perfect - lots of subsidies, some sclerotic state-run railways. But it's a necessary governmental intrusion into the transport market, designed to not only give citizens a choice in travel mode, but also to relieve congestion and crowding on the air travel system.

Which, as anyone in the U.S. knows, is a big mess here, and going to get even messier as the increasing number of travelers collides with finite airport capacity and increased security concerns. Our shambolic Amtrak rail system is, of course, a national joke.

It will take billions to build high speed rail networks in the U.S. But its a worthy goal, one that will undoubtedly have to wait for a Democratic President in 2009 to be even contemplated. But the U.S. prototype, the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington, is already in place. There's talk of high speed rail for Midwest cities that are 100-500 miles apart. Other obvious high-speed corridors exist in Florida, Texas, California, and, of course, here in the Northwest from Eugene to Seattle. It's time for an "all aboard" to bring rail back as a choice for shorter 100-500 mile trips.