^Blog You Say You Want a Railvolution?

Photo Source: The Independent
Andrew Adonis, Britain’s Secretary of State for Transport, penned today in The Times a forceful argument in favor of what he describes as a “21st-century transport revolution — high-speed rail.” Read it for yourself, but his article presents strong arguments countering what some in Britain see as insurmountable obstacles to developing a more robust high-speed rail network for the country, including cost, the relative proximity of major cities, and the question of the practicality of long-term planning amidst the recession.
As the United States for the first time in decades seems to be seriously wrestling with the idea of how, when and to what extent to further invest in rail, it’s instructive to see a comparative debate happening across the Atlantic pond. In Britain, of course, it is more a question of improving upon a system that most American tourists who have visited the country would probably say seems pretty good. Here in the U.S., however, we’d need to do a lot more building of new and improving of old lines. And that’s just a start. With apologies to the The Beatles (and Lord Adonis), it is here that we’d really be talking about a revolution.