“The Interstate Highway System transformed the way we traveled, lived, worked, and developed,” said President Biden in his March 31 speech introducing his American Jobs Plan. “Imagine what we can do, what’s within our reach, when we modernize those highways,” he continued. “You and your family could travel coast to coast without a single tank of gas onboard a high-speed train.”
The late Senator Arlen Specter shares a ride on an Amtrak train with then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2009.
When I read this, I had to wonder: is Biden’s speechwriter a total ignoramus when it comes to transportation? Or did Biden depart from the speech and allow his mind to drift to a total non-sequitur? I wondered this because, in case you weren’t aware, high-speed trains will not go on even modernized interstate highways. Although many people talk about building rail lines in the median strips of interstate highways, that’s just a fantasy: trains cannot handle the grades and high-speed trains cannot handle the curves found on interstate freeways. Not to mention the fact that there is no money for high-speed trains in Biden’s infrastructure plan anyway. Continue reading
