Getting America back on track

Ordinary Americans, and members of Congress, needed a deep breath to think about spending another $787 billion to get the derailed U.S. economy back on track.

Only one-sixth of the total was for projects in infrastructure and science, but a small item received an undue amount of attention. It was a $1.3 billion subsidy for Amtrak, the national passenger rail network created in 1971 from defunct private enterprises. Unable to make a profit, Amtrak has always been subsidized, and it's often considered a waste of money.

This is a tough decision for lawmakers. Should they keep it on life support for a future day when it might become popular again? Or should they pull the plug and use the money to build more roads and airports?

On the one hand, we tend to forget how much highways and airports are already subsidized. While the U.S. government agonizes over giving $1 billion to the rail system each year, it is happy to spend $40 billion on highways and $15 billion on aviation. On the other hand, 900 times as many passenger miles are traveled by road and 100 times as many by air.

In Hollywood movies, no one takes the train. Yet in real life, 78,000 Americans do each day. Many commute an hour or two to cities where they couldn't afford to live or park. Some business people have discovered that certain train trips are cheaper than flying. Tourists are lucky if they've heard of Amtrak, yet for a reasonable price, they can travel comfortably across the entire country — without having to stare at the road or take off their shoes and belts in front of strangers. Amtrak's double-decker train cars give you a great view of the deserts and the Rocky Mountains.

Riding Amtrak requires a flexible schedule, though. In most places, the rails are shared with freight trains that move extremely slowly and are often two kilometers long. A delay of any sort can put you behind an engine pulling 150 boxcars. In Kansas and New Mexico, I've experienced delays of several hours.

In the Northeast, the situation is a lot better. High-speed trains now run on a 700-kilometer corridor from Boston to Washington, DC. Although the trains can't reach their top speed because the tracks are too old and too close together, they have reduced the travel time to six and a half hours. Mapquest gives the driving time for the same route as eight hours — without breaks.

The Obama government is very optimistic about this potential. In addition to the Amtrak subsidy mentioned above, the spending package includes a further $8 billion to build a new national high-speed rail network.

After the terrorist attacks of 2001, many Americans used Amtrak to avoid flying. Last year, when gasoline cost three times what it does now, Amtrak again saw a big increase in ridership. In times of crisis, at least, rail isn't quite dead. A few (billion) dollars spent now may finally put things on track.