The New York Times, in an article by Michael Cooper entitled "Elections Pose Obstacle To Rail Expansion" (October 5, 2010), reports that, "Republicans running for governor in a handful of states could block, or significantly delay, one of President Obama's signature initiatives: his plan to expand the passenger rail system and to develop the nation's first bullet-train system." Cooper observes that the Republican candidate for Governor of Wisconsin, which state received more than $810 million in federal stimulus money. Similar sentiments have been voiced by Ohio Republican candidate for governor, John Kasich; Florida Republican candidate for governor, Rick Scott; and California GOP candidate for Governor, Meg Whitman (with whom Governor Schwarzenegger has publicly disagreed).
Today, the United States remains alone as the only major country in the world that does not have a high-speed rail system connecting the entire country. This fact appears not to trouble a number of these Republican candidates who, pandering to the anger of the electorate, have continued to repeat the myth that government is part of the problem, and not a part of the solution to America's economic woes. By contrast, almost all European Union countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Holland, Belgium, and even Bulgaria have constructed and operate high-speed rail systems, as has Russia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, among others.
Perhaps the greatest contrast to what passes for current political discourse in the U.S. is provided by the example of Spain.Until the 1970s, Spain was a third-world country ruled by a tin-pot dictator, Generalissimo Francisco Franco, and his Falangist Party. Today, Spain continues to inspire. Since the 1980s, the Spanish government has embarked on an ambitious program to connect all of Spain to a high speed bullet train. The Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) is a service of high speed trains operating at speeds of up to 300 km/h (186 mph) on dedicated track (The name is literally translated from Spanish as "Spanish High Speed", but also a play on the word ave, meaning "bird.)" When completed, this train network will be the most extensive in Europe, with several operational links with France and Portugal. It is, at present, the most ambitious high-speed rail plan in the European Union. The Spanish government - with the strong support of all political parties and its citizens - has committed itself to stitching its disparate regions together, notwithstanding the €100 billion ($130 billion) cost.
What the political leaders and citizens of Spain and many the other countries understand is that investment in public infrastructure and public goods has a direct, positive, stimulative effect upon a domestic economy: it creates jobs in building trains, railroad-rights-of-way, and in creating demand for related goods and services. If the U.S. were to commit itself to building a national high-speed railroad system, it could begin to re-tool the domestic industrial economy which has been largely out-sourced by short-sighted businesses to China and elsewhere. Idle plant facilities at General Motors and Chrysler could be used to build domestic bullet-trains. By giving preference, as part of a comprehensive industrial policy, to other U.S. manufacturers, the effect would be to stimulate demand - and, hence, new jobs - for domestic steel, rubber, plastic, glass and related industries as well as create thousands of well-paying construction jobs.