The Innovation of High Speed Rails

In 1964 Japan unveiled the first high speed rail. High speed rail is a type of train that can go faster than the average train. They are known as the Shinkansen in Japan or Bullet Trains in English. In the modern day, the high speed rail serves 22 major cities in Japan with three more lines in development. High speed rail is very common in other countries around the world, like France, which opened its first high speed rail in 1981.

You’re probably wondering why doesn’t the U.S. have high speed rail like these other countries? There are many reasons why the US does not have high speed rail to the extent that these countries in Europe and Asia do. First off, to build the infrastructure you need permission from Congress and many members of Congress don’t see the point of the project since people can just take a car or plane and that doesn’t cost the government any money. Another issue is acquiring the land for the construction of the new high speed rail. The way the U.S. government acquires land for infrastructure projects is called eminent domain. Back in the 1950s when the U.S. was building the interstate highway the government used eminent domain to take people’s homes to build the road.

Given that there are many trade-offs to building high speed rails, there are also many benefits to building the high speed rail. The first benefits would be not having to go to the airport two hours early and dealing with airport security or having to drive a long distance from one state to another. Another benefit would be economic. With the rise of new industries like manufacturing, a new high speed rail would allow us to create new supply chains that could help create new components and jobs for people.

The final benefit is the reduction of carbon admissions. High speed rail has been proven to be less polluting than cars and airplanes by omitting 83 percent carbon emissions than those forms of transportation do.

Given the issues of establishing a high speed rail system, many people are still skeptical, but there is proof that high speed rail can work. Although the U.S. as a whole doesn’t have high speed rail, states in the northwest have a high speed rail that goes from Washington D.C. to Boston. This Acela Expressway is the only high speed rail that is available in the U.S. While it is slower than most high speed rails, it is still classified as such. This proves that the high speed rail can work in the U.S.

If the U.S. were to build a high speed rail, it would be a great help to the country as it is with the European and Asian countries that established their high speed rail so long ago. Many politicians have been stopped for one reason or another from building the high speed rail but one day they might accomplish this goal.