Shinkansen Envy

It was fifty years ago today that Japan, in preparation for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, began operation of its now-legendary Shinkansen bullet train system.  

The original trains, which cut travel time between Tokyo and Osaka by more than half, ran at speeds of 130 miles per hour.  Today's trains run at speeds of about 200 miles per hour.

Also, in 1964, railroad companies in the United States were going under at an alarming rate, and the government assumed control of intercity passenger rail from the private firms and created Amtrak seven years later.  Much of the Amtrak fleet was carried over from the old railroads, and, except for the Acela (which I believe is Spanish for "bullet train lite"), one could be forgiven for thinking that Amtrak still uses the same fleet of cars and locomotives that existed when Richard Nixon was President and was built when Nixon was Vice President.    

Barack Obama, as President, has devoted more attention to high-speed rail in America than any of his predecessors, yet the results are still the same - nothing to write home about, assuming you're a Japanese exchange student.  Obama gave money to states to build high-speed rail lines; Republican governors opposed to the very idea of mass transit gave it back.  In 2011, he proposed a $53 billion spending plan for improved passenger rail service over six years.  Not one cent of that money was approved by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.  California is valiantly trying to build a high-speed passenger rail system, but lawsuits and investigations have slowed it down.   

So here's the deal, fifty years after Japan leaped light years ahead in passenger railroading and left us eating our own dust.  Obama, having decided that high-speed rail is more controversial than reproductive rights, doesn't talk about it so much any more.  Neither does Vice President Joe Biden, who rode Amtrak regularly from Wilmington to Washington, D.C. as a senator from Delaware.  And now politicians on record as having supported high-speed rail in the past, including California lieutenant governor Gavin Newsom, are saying we should forget about it and address other concerns.  I have had friends on Facebook tell me that I ought to sacrifice my advocacy for rapid rail and concentrate on bigger battles with the right wing to wage. 

Well, here's my one-word response to that suggestion:

No.

Here's an elaboration: No, never, not on your life.  Ever since Japan started running its bullet trains, we high-speed rail advocates in the U.S. have been campaigning to bring the same kind of modern passenger rail service here.  We've been doing it for fifty years - fifty f---in' years.  And I'm only 48!  So, technically, I've been waiting for high-speed rail in America longer than I've been alive!  My parents got married the same month Japanese bullet trains started running; Germany, France, and Italy have long since followed suit, China is just getting started, and all we've accomplished is the Acela, which can't even go as fast as its 150-mph top speed because of incompatible track on the Northeast Corridor.   And you're asking me and others to give up the fight now?   Geez, even the Second Avenue subway in Manhattan is on track (no pun intended) to be completed first, and only the first phase of that is scheduled to open at the end of 2016!  You want me to forget about high-speed intercity rail?  The hell I will! I'll say it again.  No.  No! A thousand times no!

And if the United States Government can't build, in this country, a high-speed passenger rail network worthy of the term, then the government can go to hell.