High-Speed Rail is Dead, and That's Good!

At the beginning of last year, hopes were high that America would update its aging transportation infrastructure with high-speed trains. Those hopes were killed by a combination of wealthy suburbanites who didn't want trains zooming through their backyards and Republicans opposed to large government projects. Should we mourn the death of high-speed rail? Slate's Will Oremus says yes and no. Parts of the U.S. badly need fast mass transit to alleviate congestion, but the Obama administration didn’t fund projects in those areas—the proposed system was, “at best, a disjointed patchwork.” And the proposed trains were already outdated compared to those of Europe, and far slower than those of Japan and China.