In April of 2009, President Obama unveiled his administration's plan for a national network of high-speed passenger rail lines. He noted the importance of this plan, recognizing that it would reduce traffic congestion and dependence on foreign oil and it would improve the environment. With Vice President Biden, President Obama stated that Americans need "clean, efficient travel".
President Obama's plan identified ten possible intercity passageways that could receive federal funding, including New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, the Gulf Coast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest and California. Each passageway mentioned is between 100 and 600 miles long.
As President Obama pointed out, "my high-speed rail proposal will lead to innovations that change the way we travel in America. We must start developing clean, energy-efficient transportation that will define our regions for centuries to come". He also referenced the great success of high-speed railways in Europe. President Obama's plan includes $8 billion, which will be spent in the next two years, and an additional $1 billion each year for the next five years—all of which will be spent developing the high-speed rail system.
A high-speed passenger rail system is an absolutely brilliant idea for the United States. Other countries, like Japan and France, already have high-speed passenger rail systems. In Japan, the Shinkansen rail line carries more than 151 million passengers every year, and it has moved more passengers than any other high-speed rail line in the world, having served more than six billion passengers. In France, the TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse in French, which translates into ‘high-speed train') rail line is a series of electric trains that carry passengers throughout the country. The TGV service holds the record for the fasted schedule rail journey in the entire world. With the success of the TGV system, other European countries, like Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Germany, modeled their own high-speed rail systems on France's TGV system. Throughout Europe, countries created connections between each of their rail systems, so that passengers can travel through France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Once President Obama's high-speed passenger rail system is built, the system will lead to reducing American carbon emissions by six billion pounds every year and take millions of cars off of roads. EnviroCitizen.org thinks it's about time the United States move into the twenty-first century, and President Obama's high-speed passenger rail system is just the way to do it. |
