Train - The Sexy New Way to Travel?

Well, it's not so sexy if you live in Europe. It's pretty much a standard and accepted way to travel long distances. In North America however, it has become the preferred method of travel for steel, lumber and vagrants. The few remaining passenger train lines have a hard time competing with the road system where money gushes from the public purse in a strong show of support. I wonder how long it will take before public officials relax their (likely fatigued) rubber stamping arms and realize that shoving money into potholes and geriatric car companies is equivalent to using cash as fireplace tinder and toilet paper.

It will probably be a very long while from now for they only have the ability to see about 3 months into the future and certainly not past their term. Which is a shame because we have quite an impressive network of rail track that has fallen into disrepair and could easily accommodate our upcoming transportation needs, or should I say, crisis? Depends on your perspective.

A few months ago James Howard Kunstler, a peak-oil journalist and pro rail preacher commented on Treehugger about a new proposal for high-speed train systems in the U.S.:
"One very plain and straightforward example at hand is the announcement last week of a plan to build a high speed rail network. To be blunt about it, this is perfectly f*****g stupid. It will require a whole new track network, because high speed trains can't run on the old rights of way with their less forgiving curve ratios and grades. We would be so much better off simply fixing up and reactivating the normal-speed track system that is sitting out there rusting in the rain -- and save our more grandiose visions for a later time.
I don't like to be misunderstood. With the airlines in a business death spiral, and mass motoring doomed, we need a national passenger rail system desperately. But we already have one that used to be the envy of the world before we abandoned it. And we don't have either the time or the resources to build a new parallel network."

Where his ideas start to get really interesting is how they are reflected in the responses from the posters who either aggressively support Kunster (as in resorting to calling those who disagree with him "Nit Wits") to those who think Kunstler is "absolutely clueless" and who think his argument is "f*cking ignorant and uninformed". Jolly good debate this is with all the responses as tempered and informed as usual.

I'll save you the frustration of reading through the childish rants and direct you to one of the more lucid replies that appeared to written by someone with intimate knowledge on the subject. And from there you can come to your own conclusions.