A Global Leader in Obsolete Technology

Randal O'TooleSecretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg wants to make the United States the “global leader” in high‐​speed rail. That’s like wanting to be the world leader in electric typewriters, rotary telephones, or steam locomotives, all technologies that were once revolutionary but are functionally obsolete today. High‐​speed trains, in particular, were rendered obsolete in 1958, when B oeing introduced the707 jetliner, which was twice as fast as the fastest trains today.Slower than flying, less convenient than driving, and more expensive than either one.Aside from speed, what makes high ‐​speed rail obsolete is its high cost. Unlike airlines, which don’t require much infrastructure other than landing fields, high‐​speed trains require huge amounts of infrastructure that must be built and maintained to extremely precise standards. That’s why airfares averaged just14 cents per passenger ‐​mile in 2019, whereas fares on Amtrak ’s high‐​speedAcela averaged more than90 cents per passenger ‐​mile.Highways require infrastructure but not this level of precision. While a  four‐​lane freeway costs about $10 million to $20 million a mile, California ended up spending$100 million a  mile building its abortive high ‐​speed rail line on flat ground, and it predicted building in hilly territory would cost at least$170 million per mile.In 2009, President Obama proposed that the United States build8,600  miles of high ‐​speed...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs