On this day before Thanksgiving, the busiest traveling day of the year in America (so we're told), the body scanner boycott that was expected to snarl airports and flights pretty much didn't happen. Most people are comfortable with the searches because they understand the importance of keeping the skies safe. Except that I personally don't know if full body scanners - placed in airports by politically connected security firms - are the way to go.
The controversy over the scanners, though, has only magnified the need for more transportation alternatives to flying, and that includes more passenger trains. Terrorists can't hijack a train and run it into a building, and to respond to the inevitable point that they can still commandeer a train and take hostages, there would have to be a lot of al-Qaeda commados to take over all of the cars. True, they can set of bombs in a train or derail it. But apart from the Madrid train bombing in 2004, such incidents are rare.
Michael Moore, incidentally, traveled from Florida to New York on Amtrak recently on a trip that took more than a day at a distance of a thousand miles, and he noted that a high-speed train could travel across the continent - three times the distance - in half the time. The train Moore rode had sleeping accommodations that would have been considered primitive on the original transcontinental railroad, yet the train was packed with riders, indicating a customer base for trains that Ohio governor-elect John Kasich insists does not exist.
The controversy over the scanners, though, has only magnified the need for more transportation alternatives to flying, and that includes more passenger trains. Terrorists can't hijack a train and run it into a building, and to respond to the inevitable point that they can still commandeer a train and take hostages, there would have to be a lot of al-Qaeda commados to take over all of the cars. True, they can set of bombs in a train or derail it. But apart from the Madrid train bombing in 2004, such incidents are rare.
Michael Moore, incidentally, traveled from Florida to New York on Amtrak recently on a trip that took more than a day at a distance of a thousand miles, and he noted that a high-speed train could travel across the continent - three times the distance - in half the time. The train Moore rode had sleeping accommodations that would have been considered primitive on the original transcontinental railroad, yet the train was packed with riders, indicating a customer base for trains that Ohio governor-elect John Kasich insists does not exist.
Contrary to popular wisdom, not all Republicans are against high-speed passenger rail. Incoming House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica of Florida has supported it (find more information on the Sunshine State's high-speed rail project here), and that noted lefty Trent Lott consistently supported bullet trains for Amtrak, not to mention the mere existence of Amtrak as well. I actually wrote a letter to Lott when he was a senator, in which I thanked him for his support for the national passenger railroad.
Unfortunately, many Tea Partiers and Tea Party sympathizers have to be dragged kicking and screaming into supporting a public works project many see as government intervention with and control over our freedom of mobility. France and Germany have enjoyed this cutting-edge rail service for years, and China has already started to build its own high-speed rail network. Japan inaugurated its bullet trains in October 1964 - the month my parents got married, to give you a personal perspective - in time for the Tokyo Olympics. Eurostar bullet trains link Britain with the continent through the Channel Tunnel. Meanwhile, we can't even build a commuter tunnel under the Hudson River. But with Florida and now Illinois gearing up to build trains that can outrun the Acela, we may soon have some rail projects with tangible results to demonstrate just how vital bullet trains can be for America.
Until then, consider yourself lucky if you at least have driving as a viable alternative to flying. Just watch out for those toll booths. Happy Thanksgiving.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment