Transportation Methods in the US

Before I get into my purpose of this post let me just say that Blogspot is total garbage if it will not allow me to make a custom hyperlink and will require me to leave these completely tacky ones on here. I may be leaving to move to Wordpress if this issue is not figured out immediately.


http://www.physorg.com/news65373596.html

This article talks about an issue that has come to mind lately about the inadequateness of the United States and more specifically its government. The basic premise is that the United States has rather primitive forms of travel as compared to other nations such as Europe and Japan. While Europe and Japan have found the joys of high speed trains, the United States continues on as if they do not exist. I understand that currently the infrastructure to pull off such task of improving our transportation system is not in place, but wasn't this the case at one time with regards to air travel, and car travel?

Lets look at the pros before we go any further. The government is currently on a huge kick to improve our air and cut down on pollution with various perks such as tax incentives for hybrid cars, and forcing dealers to have higher MPG ratings on their cars. While these are all good ideas they are mere short term fixes that still create pollution, and yet they continue to overlook the high speed electric train as a way to make a serious statement in regards to our environment?
The article says that the main reason that train travel has no real future is that the government does not want to do it. Now if I remember correctly the cross-country trains in the 1800's were one of the major reasons that America moved ahead of so many other countries at that time, yet the government refuses to be involved with such a project.
From my own personal point of view the idea of being able to hop on a train for half the price and double the time of air travel seems like a pretty good idea especially considering the hoops we jump through in order to actually board a plane these days (thank you Taliban). I would be much more likely to spend 100 dollars to go to Chicago on a 2 hour train ride than I would be to pay 200 dollars to make the same trip via air. Its not that I do not think time is money, because we all know this is true, but the advantage of the 100 dollars in my pocket would greatly outweigh the extra hour of travel time. With the imminent merger of Delta and Northwest airline ticket prices are likely to increase causing greater need for alternative methods of transportation. The problem with air travel is that it is not as convienent or cost effective for most people to use outside of the business world. It would cost entirely too much to fly a family of 4 to some destination, rent a car for a week, and fly home. That is why car travel is so huge in our country. Cars are great don't get me wrong, and they are nicer than trains in the grand scheme of things, but couldn't we improve our environment more if we used them more strictly for local trips and errands?
Another positive that would arise from this when you look at the eastern seaboard, almost all of the major cities are booming with business, money, and people looking to get out and do things. If there were near limitless possibilities of where to go via train wouldn't more people hop on one from NYC to Philly for a weekend with friends/family? My thought is yes, but the way it is currently they must fly (expensive), drive (time consuming and limited city parking) or walk (impossible) so they would rather just not go. Trains would take the best of all these things and put them together.

With all the advantages and reasons to have trains in the US it will likely not happen in our lifetime because the government does not want it to. The government spends too much money on totally ridiculous things, and is more careless with our money than we even know. Government workers are worthless and it is no fault of theirs. They are paid to do what they do and human nature is that if they only have to work 40 hours a week to get their raise, and working 50 won't help them, why should they sacrifice time with family and friends? For this reason many private firms are paid to go in and do what government employees do not do because they are able to do the job better and faster. In my job I work hard and fast because I am forced to. We have limited budgets, and high expectations because that is how you make people excel, by giving them goals they can reach with time and effort, and giving them strong incentives to reach those goals.

So what does all this mean? Well I think that in order for the United States to take a step forward in regards to transportation the government needs to recognize its inefficiencies and take steps to solve this. My proposal is that the government enters into a joint venture with private firms to create a network of high speed trains and mass transit. If private firms were paid by the government to build the infrastructure it would end up costing far less, and being completed much faster. Once the system is in place the government could allow companies to run the trains as they would any other business, essentially giving away the system to willing and qualified companies. By paying for the implementation of the system the US government would be putting its stamp of approval on the process, and by allowing the companies to treat the system as if it were a regular business they would strive to keep costs down, be efficient and produce a profit. They could allow only a certain percentage of the market share to be owned by one single company so as to avoid any issues stemming from a monopoly, and this way firms could work with each other to increase the number of overall rails as a way to continure increasing their assets while maintaining a proper portion of the market share.

Do I think any of this will happen anytime soon? Absolutely not, but it is defintely something to think about and I think would do alot to ensure that the United States is one of the smartest and most advanced countries in the world. It is mind boggling to me that no one seems to have thought about this, or made any strides toward fixing it. They all seem to caught up in their campaigns, endorsing candidates, and avoiding ever actually answering a question. Such is the world we live in...and to think WE have one of the best governmental systems in the world. Think how good things could be...