Excuse me, but I’m just full of piss and vitriol after reading this news. The fact that candidates would spurn money from the government that’s intended to merely lay a foundation for an extensive network of intercity rail lines is beyond my comprehension. A healthy economy depends on construction work; abundant building projects are all the more welcome. – or so one might think.
Apparently, the candidates vying for offices, positions that were under the waning grasp of Democrats, but are now thoroughly up for grabs, don’t see the immediate benefit of going forth with their allotted charge to build rail lines. Therein lies the problem: there may not be any immediate benefit from these proposed rail networks (unless you count the thousands of individuals who’ll be employed to build them). It must be recognized that all of us, at some stage of our lives, had difficulty walking or running about on our own legs. It’s an incremental process of adjustment, growth and encouragement. The Republican candidates are complaining that some of the proposed rail projects wouldn’t get off to a running start, so they advocate chopping the legs out from underneath the idea.
For the past two years, I’ve been taking complete advantage of an extensive rail network that simply dominates the domestic travel sector here in China. I don’t drive a car out here. I wouldn’t dare take a smaller vehicle, such as a motorcycle, on the highways here for reasons of my own—mainly the fact that I value my own life. So trains and buses come in as the next best option. From personal experience I can say that the train networks are vastly better than the bus lines. There have been countless occasions when I’ve had to make use of the Nanjing-Shanghai rail corridor. I can buy my train tickets days in advance at a convenient booking office just around the corner from my apartment. I can then leisurely make my way to the rail station, where I wait in comfort for a timely train that will spirit me away to my destination at a fantastic speed. Snacks and beverages are served throughout the trip; there are clean lavatories in every other car of the train; the seats are cozy; and the first class cars even come equipped with power outlets so you can work from your laptop while you travel.
That description fits one of the most sophisticated high-speed rail networks in all of China, and possibly Asia for that matter. A lot of money and time was devoted to build up that impressive milestone of the transportation industry here in China. But for the sheer amount of passengers going back and forth between the terminals of this network, it just made sense.
On the other hand, I’ve had the opportunity to travel on the rustic, vintage train lines here in China as well. You can read more about that in my entries about a 2008 trip to Beijing. Suffice to say it’s nowhere near as comfortable as the sleek new bullet trains that have been cropping up here in the country’s Southeastern rail corridor. However, these genuinely high-speed rail lines have been steadily branching out to connect all points of the country – even Tibet.
My steadfast belief is that to curtail groundwork on such a network of rail lines in the United States would be folly. Give hard-pressed people some work, use the federal stimulus as it was intended, and pull your head out of your rear end to see the stunning reality of sensible transportation. That is, unless you would rather keep bailing out these guys.
Rory Keane is an American-born teacher and writer who has logged nearly two years in China, and is working on another year-long stint in the Middle Kingdom. He writes about travel, sociopolitical issues, health, entertainment, and culture, among other topics.
