12/13/2023

Why America Still Doesn't Have High-speed Trains

The country doesn't want to pay for better railroads

North America’s fastest train currently sits in a Philadelphia storage yard. Once slated to enter service in 2021, the next generation Acela Express will not carry passengers for at least another year. That’s according to an October report by Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), which found that the train’s hydraulic systems leak, its couplers may corrode from draining water, and its windows sometimes shatter.

The OIG blames the French manufacturer, Alstom, for these problems while the company, whose share prices plunged almost 50 percent in the wake of the report and amid cash flow worries, faults poor track conditions on the northeast corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C.

The plight of the $2.3 billion Acela replacement program highlights several current policy issues: America’s decaying transit infrastructure, the scope of federal safety regulations, and the role of multinational corporations in an industry subject to 2021’s Build America Buy America Act. Though its trials seem ripped from the headlines, the slick French machine parked in Philadelphia also typifies America’s long, fraught history with fairly fast trains. This history teaches us that the country’s high-speed ambitions have long surpassed its willingness to pay for better railroads.

Please select this link to read the complete article from TIME.