The length of the list of reasons, and the flimsiness of each, points to this conclusion: the real reason for progressives’ passion for trains is their goal of diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism.
Honestly, I don't know much about George F. Will, but it doesn't look like he has a filter between what he thinks and what he writes. He must just be pandering to conservatives because I don't want to believe that a journalist who must have had some success in his field really believes that high-speed rail is some liberal conspiracy to turn the people into sheep. Maybe he just forgot about the massive subsidies to both air and auto transit, maybe he forgot about rush hour, maybe he forgot about the dismal state of non-aerial intercity transit in this country. As a college student who periodically tries to get from Chicago to Minneapolis on a budget, I can attest to that last one.
I should probably explain why this issue gets my blood boiling. I grew up 2 blocks away from a train station, and when I was little my great-uncle would take me to the station to watch the trains. Fast-forward many years to my late adolescence, and it only took one year of commuting to high-school by car to make me lose the fascination with driving that came with getting my license.
I'll come back to make a rational point. The healthiest state for our transportation structure to be in is a state of balance, where road, rail, and air all exist and are all viable forms of transit. It won't be easy to work trains back into the American transportation arsenal, but sooner or later it will become clear that adding more lanes to our highways and more runways to our airports won't be enough as the country grows and develops.
Ha ha! Just kidding! I just want trains to ease Americans into communism. Because that makes sense.
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