guy44

Thinking about costs as being supported entirely by fares is an incorrect way to think about HSR, or in actuality, most transportation systems. The airline industry would basically be kaput if it weren't for major government subsidies at certain delicate times. No city's public transit system is self-sustaining. The interstate system was a massive public works project which still requires enormous sums of government money to upkeep. Just because we've become accustom to all of these methods of transportation existing, and as a result don't really think about their attendant costs as government subsidies for otherwise unsustainable endeavors, doesn't mean they aren't so.

Furthermore, the interstate system has innumerable externalities that no market currently captures and thus don't generally get thought of as costs. For example, the interstates are overcrowded, increasing travel times, lowering quality of life, and slowing business and commerce. The massive toll the interstates have on our environment is another major externality that will be partially mitigated by increased reliance on HSR as an alternative to interstates. And so on.

Obviously, the United States is not Japan or Europe and as such need not construct its HSR infrastructure according to the same basic plan. Ours is a large country with vast expanses of uninhabited or sparsely populated areas and there is no need for trains to replace interstates or air travel in those areas. But Obama's plan seems to me to be a good-faith effort to identify those regions that could benefit substantially from HSR and build up a network with very specific needs in mind. Intelligently done, there's really no reason that improved linkages between northern midwestern states couldn't play a substantial role in the resurrection of Michigan's economy, or that more attractive travel options between SoCal and NorCal couldn't result in a tourism boom. (I just made the trip from San Diego to Seattle this summer, and I can assure everyone that that corridor need HSR badly.)

I've also noted several people noting that no-one would take a train very long distances, such as from NY to LA or Chicago to Atlanta. Agreed - and so does Obama, whose plan is based around regional efforts:



P.S. MexicanOnABike, I met the guy who wrote the Monorail song, and yes, he is that awesome.

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