Greetings from the Northeast Corridor - somewhere near Trenton, NJ - America’s one great stretch of inter-city rail. The Racetrack in Chicago is nice – there’s some hot rail down over by d’ere – but it ain’t no NE Corridor, ESPECIALLY when one has the chance to take the Acela. High speed rail is a beautiful thing. I realize that the US isn’t quite like Japan or Europe geographically, and I am not suggesting that Cedar Rapids needs a high-speed link to Joplin, MO or Fon Du Lac WI or what have you. However, the NE Corridor needs it, and I think California also very much needs it. Indeed, the people of Cali voted for an initiative in support of it if memory serves. I don’t expect to live long enough to see it actually built, but the idea is a big turn on for me (yes, I said "turn-on".)

The archetype free-market numbnuts love to beat up on Amtrak. They would be happy to see the whole thing de-funded to force the service to be provided privately or not at all. This old canard, second only to the anti-PBS/Big Bird Jihad, rings quite hollow for loads of reasons. In the case of Amtrak, I can only point to the fact that Amtrak itself was created out of the remnants of private rail service, all of which is now gone in the US (other than on excursion lines.) The free market has already failed at competing with the automobile & airlines (especially with subsidies cars & planes get.) Economic Determinists know this of course; they are just being phony. They know that de-funding Amtrak means the end of this service and all such service. They don’t give a squirt either way – they don’t actually need the service, so naturally, the service isn’t really needed. The fact that it won't go back in once it is gone means nothing to them. There is no reality, just Economic Theory!

One day, I hope that people wake up and realize that the purpose of our lives isn’t to prove or disprove someone else’s economic theories. There are things we need, and if the market can provide them, great. If it can’t, and we still need it, then we can decide we still want it and can work through our representative government to create it. Market-uber-alles types would have you believe that any such thoughts make you a Socialist or no-good Commie. F them. The absence of support for their ideological struggle is not prove of the existence of a competing economic struggle. In fact, it might just mean life is better for the majority when we have Big Bird and Amtrak. So far, this is the case for me!

We can’t go back and re-deed huge amounts of land to private railroads so that “The Market” can succeed like it “did” before. If the government hadn’t given ludicrously lucrative land grants to the great capitalists of days gone by, there would be no railroad or any of its benefits. If the government didn’t build roads and make them available to all, commerce as we know it wouldn’t exist. The laughable efforts to privatize roads have yet to take off just yet, and I wouldn’t hold my breath on seeing them do so anytime soon. I wouldn’t expect them to EVER take off without takings, eminent domain, and the big hand of the man. Projects of this scale require collective action and gimmies – though don’t tell anyone you heard me say so.

For now, I will just have to enjoy this little stretch of train nerd heaven. Having the chance to high-tail up the Eastern Seaboard on our one true high-speed train will have to do me for now. To that end, I will confess, it is doing me just fine. It is a fab day for a sprint up to The Big Apple from The City Of Brotherly Love; in fact, the backside of industrial New Jersey cannot possibly be made to look more appealing than it does when you a crossing through it as quickly as one possibly can without flying over it. I think that should go on an Acela brochure!