Trains For America, the blog focused on passenger rail across the United States, has posted a copy of a letter Senator John Kerry (Dem-Mass.) wrote to his Senate colleagues advocating support of the proposed High Speed Rail for America Act. Senator Kerry is advocating that as one way to keep the United States competitive we need to develope a high speed rail system to address public transportation needs across the United States focusing on distances of 100-500 miles. The proposal states that links between cities will encourage the development of light rail links within the cities served by the high speed rail lines. It is really not that much of a stretch to imagine getting on the train in downtown Cincinnati and getting off 3.5 hours later in downtown Chicago; or traveling to Cleveland and Columbus for meetings and returning home in the same day, while staying connected and working via your laptop practically the entire time with very few compromises.
I just returned from a week of business meetings in central Europe. I traveled between cities by rail. I started in Brussels, then traveled to Munich, Zurich, Paris to make the connections to Nantes, France. The experience was overall much more satisfying and restful than air travel. The most comfortable and impressive rail service is the French TGV high speed rail service. Throughout I was able to connect wirelessly to the internet and keep up with emails and telephone calls. Also, the cabin noise was much lower than in a jet airplane and therefore less draining.
As noted below in prior posts, developers, lenders and governments need to recognize the opportunities for economic development, job growth and increased tax revenue that building and maintaining new rail networks will provide. Come on real estate industry GET ON BOARD NOW BEFORE THE TRAIN LEAVES THE STATION !!!
