The allure of high speed rail

DIA:

[..] $8 billion in stimulus money and $5 billion over the next five years for high-speed and intercity passenger trains.

Richard Florida, an Atlantic correspondent, has a long, thoughtful and information-rich post about high-speed, intercity rail networks in America. He presents a map that shows the potential links, but the real gem is a table down below showing travel time between cities at French TGV speeds. As Mr Florida notes, putting Philadelphia 36 minutes from New York, and San Diego 46 minutes from Los Angeles—and that is 36 and 46 minutes of train-time, meaning productive time, not 36 and 46 minutes in the air, meaning 3 hours of airport misery—would effectively make those cities into suburbs.

Among all the things we're throwing money at, this sure seems like one of the better ones.