Last week ’s horrendous Amtrak clangoring rise Modern concerns about the US ’s neglect of its rail base , with blame falling on Congress forfailing to allocate enough moneyto elevate the organization for prophylactic . The truth is that trains would be the safe way of life to travel in this country — if more Americans embraced a future on rails .
When Amtrak Northeast Regional 188 derailed , killing eight people , many analyst meditate that the crashlikely could have been preventedbyPositive Train Control , a location - establish monitoring organisation that can define a train ’s hurrying based on where it is on the raceway . Most paper focus in on what was deemed a tragic crook : The train was outfit with the engineering science and it would have been operational in a few month — but alack of financial support was delaying it .
The day after the crash , Congress actually vote tocut even more of Amtrak ’s budget .
Yesterday , the New York Times reported that the USdevotes so lilliputian to train improvementsthat it may be impact overall rider safety . Our per caput outgo on rails is much less than most nations — far behind all of Europe and Japan , but also behind countries like India and Russia . China has build a high - speed rails empire in the last decade that let in theworld ’s long routeas well asprojects in other countries .
The US ’s system isabsolutely antiquatedcompared to almost any other country . Here ’s the most damnatory passage :
Japan ’s famed Shinkansen “ slug train ” internet has never experienced a fatal crash or derailment in 51 years of operation , while in France the same can be said of its gleaming fleet of in high spirits - speed TGVs , which have zip across the French countryside for close to three decades .
pin blame for a fatal crash on Congress for enabling this specific budgetary shortfall does n’t help aid the investigating or fix the poor emergency reply , asthis firsthand news report of a disaster relief actor who was on the traineloquently argues . But it does point to a larger offspring . Of course certain politicians wo n’t vote for improvements for trains . Their component do n’t mount them .
In October , Amtrak had posted arecord high ridershipfor fiscal 2014 : Last year it number 30 million boardings . While Amtrak ’s route cover nearly the entire state , 11 million embarkment were just on the Northeast Corridor , the itinerary between DC and Boston .
Thismap from Voxthat shows stations by overall Amtrak ridership tells you everything you need to know about who is riding the trains in this country : A third of all Amtrak rides originate in the city of New York , DC , and Philadelphia .
For the rest of the country , better rail infrastructure is not a financial priority . In fact , it ’s become position as an unneeded extravagance . You hear a certain word reduplicate over and over in word history : High - speed rail is a boondoggle .
The story of attempting to improve our rail base has become almost comically predictable . States put together a high speed rail proposal . Funds are promise . Then the plan is bang up in a highly politicized battle . Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker vowed to“kill ” a high-pitched - speed rails plan — even though the Union funding was already allocate . governor swattedsimilar plans in Ohio and Florida . Whether it ’s the geological fault of voters or little - sighted politicians , we just ca n’t figure our high - upper rail fate .
Many of the routes advise by the Obama administration ’s $ 8 billion investment inhigh speed rail projectsas part of the Recovery Act in 2009 have already been deny
There is no doubt that public opinion has to commute . The country postulate to depart electing people who are serious about invest in improvements that make our power train secure . At the same time , those melioration will not be made if there is a rising fear that trains are severe .
I do n’t know how to fix this . When I depend at the proposals for US rail projects , I see a lot of indifference . None of the high - speed rail visual sensation propose for the country have fascinate Americans enough to lure them — at least emotionally — from their machine and carpenter’s plane . Okay , mayhap theHyperloop ? And in that sense , perhaps privatized train travel is really the only way to go .
Take California ’s high speed rail proposal . Yes , voters did okay a $ 10 billion bond measure that would help finance the system . Thestations are already being built ; some of them have already becomestriking landmarks in our metropolis . But the train itself is n’t any kind of technical game - changer — in fact , it ’s almost like an afterthought , when it should be the centerpiece . Where is our glorious US - designed bullet geartrain that can sling the commonwealth ahead ?
This is the future ? Where is our bullet train ?
Japan ’s magnetic levitation trainbroke its speed record at 366 mphearlier this year . Although the specific rolling inventory has n’t been selected yet for CHSR , we know the specs : California ’s string will top out at 220 mph and pass on wheels . That ’s only a thin improvement to the trains we have now . What was most disgraceful to the relaxation of the macrocosm about last week ’s crash was n’t that a train wastraveling over 100 mphon a curve that was designed for half the amphetamine . It ’s that most of our trains are n’t actually project to go that fast at all .
If the destination is to make more Americans safer when they travel , the US has got to change its priorities . 230 masses conk in train crash last twelvemonth in the US , a number that should utterly be zero . Our trains certainly need a safety upgrade , but overall , trains are statistically a much , much safer transportation methodwhen compared to motorise vehicles . Yet GM gets a government bailout and Amtrak gets its backing slashed .
Instead of investing in better train technology , which could easy make railing the good means to travel in the US , we ’ve drop the retiring half - century pumping billions of buck into our interstate main road system — where cars kill 32,000 masses each yr .
AP Photo / Michael R. Sisak
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