As a seven-year-old living in Japan, I did not know my home address offhand, but I did know that to find my house, you would have to take the JR train line to the Shioya stop, walk up the hill a little ways, and my house was #18. I miss the train. I took it everywhere: to school, to a friend’s house, to shopping centres. During rush hour, everyone would have to squeeze together, shoulder to shoulder. Our inhales and exhales would coincide with the opening and closing of the doors. I wasn’t tall enough yet to reach the dangling hand rings, so I learned how to plant my feet and let my body sway with the rhythm of the train. I was a train track surfer.
I moved back to the states when I was eleven, but years later in college, I studied abroad in Madrid. Once again, I took El Metro everywhere, and the country’s high-speed rail system allowed me to easily travel to parts of Spain I wanted to see. I hadn’t anticipated the magnitude of nostalgia I would feel as I zipped across the tracks from one corner of the city to another and from one part of the country to another.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to ride many trains, I can only describe the experience as liberating. In cities with developed train systems, you do not need a car. You don’t have to worry about traffic (trains run on reliable schedules) or about parking or about the price of gas. As you can imagine, trains become cities’ circulatory systems, shuttling life around town.
Why are trains so rampantly absent in Americas’ cities?
I currently live in Phoenix, Arizona where a light rail connects downtown Phoenix to Tempe on the east side of the city. Unfortunately, I live on the west side, so I do not have access to the light rail. Honestly, I would move to New York City just for the subway system. I would sell my car and buy a new bike.
Why do we need more trains in the U.S.?
If I have not yet convinced you of the charm and convenience of trains, allow me to speak on the economic benefits of developing strong train systems within our cities as well as train systems that connect our cities. In short, building up our railway infrastructure would create jobs in the long term. Not only would we require engineers and construction workers to design and build the train systems, but we would also need people to run and maintain the system once it was constructed.
Today on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, Fareed Zakaria discussed the necessity for Republicans to put aside ideology and help Congress approve President Obama’s proposal to create “a national infrastructure bank to repair and rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure.” Zakaria explains that creating this national infrastructure bank would also serve Republican interests such as bringing down the deficit. As Zakaria notes, decreasing the unemployment rate is key to solving our debt problem. Zakaria also explains, “In many countries, in Europe, in Asia, the private sector plays a much larger role in financing and operating roads, highways, railroads, airports as well as other public resources. An infrastructure bank would create a mechanism by which you could have private sector participation.” In other words, Republicans could keep their argument that only the private sector can create jobs, while Democrats could take credit for creating a government program that works.
I remember Obama’s promises during his 2008 campaign to renew focus on infrastructure as a way to help the economy. I have listened to transportation secretary Ray LaHood articulate a solid argument for funding high-speed rail projects. I want desperately for these words to become reality.
I love trains. I hope the U.S. will build as many as possible. Perhaps if I write a letter to Congress, and you write a letter to Congress, and if we keep saying over and over again, “I love trains!” then perhaps we can finally begin laying down the tracks for a railway infrastructure envied around the world.
Mon Jun 13, 2011 at 12:35 PM PT: Here is the link to Fareed Zakaria discussing the infrastructure bank: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/...