Train Envy

Steve Clemons rides the Shanghai maglev that speeds passengers from the airport into the city in 7 minutes and 20 seconds reaching a top speed of 270 mph and is suddenly not so happy with the state of things in the United States:

And when I left Washington ten days ago, I was reading that it was going to take 15 years to extend a subway line from the DC metro to Dulles Airport -- and that it would still take 1 hour and 20 minutes when completed to travel from downtown Washington to the Airport. Our social objectives should be higher than they are.

Indeed. There are sound reasons why we can't do infrastructure upgrades as quickly as the Chinese, but we ought to do much better than we are.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/07/train-envy/49212/