Here’s an interesting article from CNN Money on-line about the “cost” of high speed rail.  With most anything, cost can be defined in different ways.  Far too often it is defined in the most stark terms of money, without a real exploration of the cost to society if the policy is implemented or not.  That is why you have to go to the very last few sentences of this article to understand the real cost of not putting in place high speed rail and appropriate public transit in our communities.  I’ll be honest and say it here.., public transit is not a money-maker, but that is not why it has been implemented successfully in ciites across the world.  As noted by University of Pennsylvania Transportation Professor Vukan Vuchic, it has been implemented as a public service to improve quality of life.  The real bottom line according to Vuchic is that “Cities that offer you decent choices in high-speed rail are better than those who only offer you highway”.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 6:29 am and is filed under Transit, Transportation, Urban Rebuilding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.