President Obama and Vice President Biden unveiled their plans for nationwide high-speed rail today, explaining how they will spend the $13 billion earmarked in the stimulus and the President’s budget for the construction of super sweet new trains. (Lots and lots of details for train geeks here.) Obama had this to say on the occasion:
What we’re talking about is a vision for high-speed rail in America. Imagine boarding a train in the center of a city. No racing to an airport and across a terminal, no delays, no sitting on the tarmac, no lost luggage, no taking off your shoes. (Laughter.) Imagine whisking through towns at speeds over 100 miles an hour, walking only a few steps to public transportation, and ending up just blocks from your destination. Imagine what a great project that would be to rebuild America.
Now, all of you know this is not some fanciful, pie-in-the-sky vision of the future. It is now. It is happening right now. It’s been happening for decades. The problem is it’s been happening elsewhere, not here.Â
In France, high-speed rail has pulled regions from isolation, ignited growth, remade quiet towns into thriving tourist destinations. In Spain, a high-speed line between Madrid and Seville is so successful that more people travel between those cities by rail than by car and airplane combined. China, where service began just two years ago, may have more miles of high-speed rail service than any other country just five years from now. And Japan, the nation that unveiled the first high-speed rail system, is already at work building the next: a line that will connect Tokyo with Osaka at speeds of over 300 miles per hour. So it’s being done; it’s just not being done here.
Consider me on board. Get it? Anyway, my favorite part of the whole rollout is this cool little map, which tells you exactly where these 100 mph trains are going to take you when they are completed in 2020 or whenever. 
Hope you don’t live in the Great Plains! No trains for you!
