Bullet Train Policy!

Geek out with us, please.

I would never have known that in 2010 Amtrak is scheduled to have its highest ridership ever.

Other highlights:

“Our freight rail system is world-class, and our metropolitan areas are embracing commuter rail, but our intercity passenger rail is a global joke. ‘There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains,’ Obama said in his State of the Union address. The next day, he visited Tampa, Fla., with Vice President Biden — whose daily train rides between Washington and Wilmington, Del., earned him the nickname Amtrak Joe — to announce high-speed grants for 31 states. In an interview, Biden said he couldn’t imagine an efficient transportation system in a carbon-constrained world without high-speed rail: ‘Tell me, how do you get it?’ (See ‘Can High-Speed Rail Succeed in America?’)

“But while $8 billion is more than four times the annual federal subsidy for Amtrak, it is just one-eighth of last year’s federal spending on highways. And at a time when our national credit card is already maxed out, this down payment is only a tiny fraction of what’s needed to establish a competitive new mode of travel. China plans to invest more than $300 billion in high-speed rail by 2020, and Spain expects to complete a more than $200 billion system the same year in a country the size of Texas.

“Meanwhile, the distribution of the Obama money — $3.5 billion to start new lines for bullet trains in Florida and California, plus $4.5 billion for sundry bridge and tunnel repairs, track straightening and other upgrades to existing Amtrak lines nationwide — has sparked intense debates even among rail advocates. Why spread cash around the country like peanut butter instead of targeting a few showcase projects? Shouldn’t the seed money go to game-changing new bullet routes rather than help for old Amtrak lines that bleed cash, share track with slow-moving freight and can never exceed 110 m.p.h.?….

“It’s true that most of Obama’s initial rail investments don’t match his grandiose high-speed-rail rhetoric. Most will provide only incremental improvements to an embarrassingly outdated system. A more honest description would be ‘higher-speed rail.’ But none of the high-speed networks operating in nations like Japan and Germany or under construction everywhere from Brazil to Turkey rely exclusively on top-of-the-line bullet trains. And for all the hype about the new new thing, this is really about improving all kinds of intercity train service — not only Amtrak but also the venerable freight railroads that share its tracks and haul 43% of our intercity cargo.”