Excerpted from Digital Diary, in GoLocal24
Let’s hope that the opposition of a few mostly affluent people near the Connecticut coast is not permitted to block construction of a long-needed 50-mile bypass (to reduce the number of curves and choke points) that would finally let Amtrak offer the high-speed train service common in much of the rest of the Developed World.
America’s decrepit transportation infrastructure and failure to install true high-speed rail has hurt the nation’s competitive position, kept far too many people on our crowded roads and hurt the environment (trains are much less polluting than cars and tracks take up much less space than highways).
The bypass would not only let Amtrak trains go much faster; it would allow a major improvement in commuter train service.
This improvement, of course, would be a boon for most everyone in southern New England.
-- Robert Whitcomb
