Item from the Associated Press -- "A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 302 miles per hour (486 kilometers per hour) Friday during a test run of a yet-to-be opened link between Beijing and Shanghai, state media said."
300 mph -- Wee! How fast are our American commercial trains going?
The point of this post is not about train speeds. Other countries trains which have gone faster. This Chinese train is the fastest speed for an unmodified conventional commercial train. But again. this post is not about speed, or not just about speed. It is about passenger rail. The point I wish to make isn't even about China, but the United States.
And the question is: Why? When a developing country like China is developing a passenger rail system which is attractive to customers, why is our nation's rail system so dismal in comparison? Why is America lagging behind the rail systems of the Europeans, and the Japanese. and the Chinese. Rail travel is more carbon efficient than air travel, thus in the long run more economical.
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