Planes beware, high speed trains are the future of America's transport by Corina Ciubotaru

Oil prices are on the rise, things need to be done fast, streets are jammed and the planet is becoming ever more polluted. What better way to fight all this than changing our means of transport? Even though it gets little funding and has never made a profit, Amtrak is set to provide a solution to the transport problem through high-speed trains. A standard today in some European countries like France and also in other parts of the world, i.e. Japan, the high-speed train capable of exceeding 125 miles per hour is still a rare sight in America. An ambitious project to link San Francisco and Sacramento to Los Angeles and San Diego is likely to be accepted by the general public after being rejected twice and might spark a nationwide revolution if more and more states adopt the idea. Current day trains are slow and have delays in almost one third of all rides, but ridership is on the rise as passengers prefer to spend less money and not be stuck in a traffic jam even though the trip takes longer. Some Amtrak lines are sponsored only by the state they run in and the company itself has $3.3 billion in debt even though it's constantly breaking its own records in terms of customer numbers. Between October 2006 and March 2007, the number of passengers was over 14.3 million, while the total in the last fiscal year numbered 24.3 million. Looks like a bright future ahead for trains in America, even though we shouldn't worry about planes and cars just yet.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070909/ap_on_bi_ge/high_speed_rail;_ylt=AtYJa.isSw5T16WxhbjDEx6s0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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