A Crazy Idea

A Crazy Idea

I was watching the news and I saw an image of dozens of idle airliners parked. Last week I had a telephone conversation with a relative who had just returned from London back to the state of Washington in a series of essentially empty airplanes. Only yesterday it occurred to me that we used to travel in trains. We all know that America’s rail service is pretty creaky these days and more often than not doesn't go where or when we would like it to. But that could change.

China has about two thirds of the world/s high speed rail lines – 22,000 miles, all built within the past few years, with speeds ranging from 100 to 200 MPH. U.S. has 0 miles.

I have vivid memories of the the building of the continental system of interstate highways under the Eisenhower administration. Today most of us don't give a thought to living without this system. Who doesn't know what is meant by I-70, I-40, I-25, I-10, etc. When even our grandfathers were kids they went about the country on divided four lane concrete roads. Way back in about 1935 the Burlington Zephyr came along with 100 MPH trains running out of Chicago. I rode from Denver to Chicago when I was a child on the Denver Zephyr. Those aluminum beauties ran for millions of miles without a single accident. That’s all history now. Those lightweight diesel trains are museum pieces today.

Everyone knows, or should know, that air travel is really hard on the environment. Airplanes emit the most pollutants per passenger mile of any form of transportation. And travel by air is always a big hassle. If we had a real network of high speed trains running from city center to city center we might not save much time – although we can all cite cases where we would – but riding the train, an electric non-polluting train, would be far easier on the nervous system.

We are in an unusual time and have an unusual opportunity. Millions are out of work, the planes are sitting idle, and glory be, the atmosphere is cleaner today than last year. Why don't we begin building a modern rail system network and put everyone to work? It will only cost trillions – but then we have already spent trillions just this year providing sustenance for out of work people.

I have only one personal story from the 80s. I was a member of an international committee of about eight to exchange technical information between the US, Canada, Australia and Great Britain, We had just finished a series of meetings in London and were scheduled to have further meetings in Edinburgh, Scotland, the next day. We were each to make our own way to Scotland. Seven of the group chose to fly and rent a hotel in Edinburgh and I chose to go by overnight train. I took a short cab ride to Kings Cross and the rest took very long cab rides to Heathrow (I suppose). I had a small compartment with a comfortable bed. In the morning I was awakened by the porter with tea and was informed that we were parked in Edinburgh – no hurry, take your time. I dressed, had my tea and made my way over to the hotel to join the group for breakfast. They had the expense of plane tickets, long cab rides and hotel rooms. I had the rail fare, and a very good night’s rest.