In The New York Times Magazine, Jon Gertner writes about trains — from Amtrak‘s Pacific Surfliner to Alstom’s prototype AGV. Somewhere in between boarding the Surfliner in Los Angeles and visiting the prototype AGV on France’s Atlantic Coast, he checks in with the California High Speed Rail Authority to talk about the future of high-speed rail in the U.S.
One thing you notice if you spend time with rail planners is that it’s difficult to separate engineering concerns from economic and political issues. It’s as if the relationship between these competing forces forms a set of interrelated mathematical equations; change one variable and you have to rework the entire calculus.
He concludes on an optimistic note. Just as high-speed rail has changed the perception of distance between cities in France, Gertner envisions a scenario where “the big cities of California were already moving closer together.” Link to full story in The New York Times Magazine.
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