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from
Holt Times July 15, 2003
Take the Bullet Train
by Clara Forest
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In the past, travel by train had a certain air of style and romance. Look at those old films from the 1940s. They always seem to show unbelievably well-dressed travelers boarding trains at unbelievably elegant train stations. In the United States, the romance of train travel eventually gave way to the more ordinary convenience of automobiles and airplanes.
As a result, highways and airports have grown increasingly crowded. It is time for railway travel to make a comeback. More cities and states should consider the bullet train as a traveler-friendly alternative to more
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airports and highways. Bullet trains are high-speed rail lines that move at speeds up to 200 miles per hour. That is nearly three times the speed of standard trains. Bullet trains run regularly in Japan and Europe. This sleek, technologically advanced rail system is the right kind of transportation for the twenty-first century.
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Advocates of train travel point out that it is a relaxing alternative to driving on a busy highway or flying in a crowded airplane. When you ride the rails, you are spared the tension of driving through nightmarish traffic and bad weather. Families taking the train have much more room to relax than they do in a car or plane. Since bullet trains run on electricity rather than fossil fuels, they are also kinder to the environment than cars and airplanes. Train seats are roomier than plane seats, and train cars are not nearly as crowded as airplane cabins. People find it much easier to eat and rest on trains than on planes.
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Unfortunately, people who hate plane travel have had no real alternative when they must cover great distances quickly. For example, traveling from San Francisco to New York on a regular train takes nearly three days. At speeds of 150 and 200 miles an hour, a bullet train could go from coast to coast in fifteen to eighteen hours. While such a trip would not be as swift as an airplane flight, a day spent on a bullet train would be a very attractive alternative for millions of reluctant flyers.
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