High-Speed Rail and the Advancement of America

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Along with hover boards and flying cars, high-speed rail is one of the most iconic futuristic technologies discussed today. With great success, European and Asian countries such as Germany, France, Japan and China have been enjoying bullet trains for decades. Japan has been a leading innovator of high-speed trains, and has currently developed a train capable of 315 mph (Shadbolt). This MagLev is revolutionizing public transport and changing how the world view trains forever. The average European high-speed train can travel at speeds in excess of 220 mph (“The 10”). The United States is falling behind in this highly efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly high-speed train race. With the amount of traffic congestion between cities like Los Angeles and San Diego, Dallas and Houston, and Miami and Orlando, high-speed rail could significantly decrease the time and cost to travel between these cities. With the ability to travel 200+ mph, safely, time would be cut by around 70% (based off of calculations of average travel time by car from Dallas to Houston (4.5 hours), and estimated time of travel for a high-speed train (1.28 hours) in Waizel). Will this not only decrease the travel time, it reduces traffic, which saves lives by reducing risk of a traffic accident, helps the environment by reducing the cars on the road, creates jobs, and reduces airport traffic for the short flight. High-speed rail overall benefits the United States by creating jobs, helping the environment, reducing safety risks, and bringing safe and reliable public transport.
The U.S.’s unemployment rate is steadily decreasing (“Databases, Tables”) thanks to a recovering economy and many companies as well as the government trying to help people find ...

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...se with more and more being achieving their license. Start the construction right now while we have a desperate need for jobs. The system has already been mapped out, and is ready to go. California is already trying to get people trained for the job of constructing the high-speed rail system. The only thing preventing the high-speed rail network from becoming a reality is the funding. Obama has already stated that he wants to spend the money to create a vast high-speed rail network, but Republicans and Superior Court Judge Kenny are preventing the spending of money to create this network (Williams)(Marin). High-speed rail is a huge project that shouldn’t be without debate, but there is too much debate currently. High-speed rail’s benefits far outweigh its disadvantages, and that’s why today is the best time to start implementing high-speed rail into America.

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