Magazine

Many Americans have come to view fast and affordable train service the way they view gun control and universal healthcare: as something that has proven its merits overseas but is doomed here. Those who dream of bullet trains shooting from sea to shining sea have new reason to hope, however. In fall 2008 California voters approved $10 billion for a high-speed train between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and in January the Obama administration slipped $8 billion for upgrades to the passenger rail network (including the development of new high-speed corridors) into the economic stimulus package. The White House has also requested an additional $1 billion for rail in each of the next five years.