If you’ve got to get from New York to L.A. in a hurry, there is only one option; air travel. While America once had a rail system that was the envy of the world, our obsession with the automobile has left our passenger rail system in a sad way. While our dreams of a high-speed rail network may be on the back burner for now, one man has made a map of his vision for an America once again connected by cutting edge trains.
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Alfred Twu created the map you see above of an American connected by high-speed rail. Twu took a look at both the current plans for HSR and what he sees as the next step in bridging the urban-rural divide of America. Thus you have some larger metro areas like Chicago connecting with places like Cheyanne, Topeka, and El Paso. Both coasts would be covered from top to bottom, as would all of the southeast and west.
But the main “red line” would take you from coast to coast in about 12 hours. So while still not as fast as say an express flight, it would be a huge improvement over the current week or so it takes to cross America by rail. The current plans for high-speed rail have been killed by Republican Governors, and the only HSR project underway in America is California’s oft-criticized line that will almost certainly go billions of dollars over budget.
Will we live to see America connected by high-speed rail? Or will we ignore trains while China and Europe build the rail networks of the future?
Source: The Guardian
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