Amtrak recently released a plan to create a "Next-Gen" high speed rail line on the eastern seaboard. For $117 billion and 25 years of construction (new tracks and tunnels, among other things, would be needed), we could get trains moving 220 miles per hour. And we should -- it would create more economic benefits than the cost, for starters.
But just as a reminder of how absurdly behind the United States is in this area, China just tested their newest high-speed train, which goes 258 miles per hour. Not 25 years from now, but now.
-- Paul Waldman
