China Launches World's Fastest Train

In yet another sign that America is losing its edge to China, the middle kingdom has just launched the world's fastest train. It runs from the central city of Wuhan down to the south coast city of Guangzhou at speeds of more than 235 miles per hour. The 620 mile route took only four years to complete.

China has ambitions of building high-speed railways over 80 percent of the current network of domestic airline routes by 2020 and will offer passengers a cheaper, more reliable ride. Beijing wants to connect 70 percent of the country's key cities.

By 2012, 42 high-speed railway links amounting to 10000 miles will be finished, of which 3000 miles will be operated at 155 mph, while 7000 miles will run at 235 miles per hour.

Now compare that to America. It is a joke! We have one route in this country where trains can travel at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour and that is on the Acela from New York to Boston. But the track is so decrepit that the Acela can reach that speed for only a few miles and typically runs at about 75 miles per hour.

I have ridden on the TGV in France, the Shinkansen in Japan and the KTX in Korea. They get you from central city to central city faster than airplanes because you don't have to waste valuable time fighting traffic going to airports. Beyond that they run on time like a Swiss watch and thunder storms, fog and air traffic congestion won't make you late.

These trains are a joy to ride and are extremely relaxing. They glide along silently compared to American trains that are rickety and noisy. You get to see the countryside go by dreamily, the seats are spacious and travel is actually enjoyable.

If you look at maps of Europe and Asia you will see they are being crisscrossed by high speed rail. We here in the U.S. have been talking about this for ages and do nothing about it because the airlines send their lobbyists out at the federal and state levels to impede any progress.

And when it comes to funding, most nations in the world subsidize their railroads in a major way because they realize these transportation links are vital to their economies. We here in the U.S. sit on our hands and the Republicans shriek about government intervention in the free market economy. Aren't they the same politicians that brought us the Great Recession by the way?

I remember growing up as a kid and reading in the history books about how the U.S. built the greatest train system in the world. Remember the transcontinental railroad? In 1869 the last spike was driven into the tie connecting Union Pacific tracks with the Central Pacific Railroad, an incredible feat. We had a fantastic train network in yesteryear. There wasn't a major city you couldn't get to aboard trains that were world class for their time.
If we want to get our country back on track economically, think of the jobs that would be created by building high speed trains between every major city in this country. Think about the steel plants cranking out the rails, the building of the cars and the train stations, the construction of the track itself. Tens of thousands of high paying, long sustained jobs could be created and we would free up our overcrowded air space, drive down the price of travel and save energy in the process. Makes sense to me!

Every major country in Europe is well on their way to completing total rail operating systems in all of their major cities and Asia is not far behind. Why is it that we don't have the vision, the political will and the desire to be competitive. Why can't we think big like our ancestors once did? Why can't we build things like we used to that helped make this country great? It is a sad state of affairs that America is becoming an also ran. And one wonders, if we don't regain our desire for greatness, we surely will become a second rate power.