Creating a High Speed Rail Line in Wisconsin Essay

Even our taxes had been being saved up for this and now millions of dollars in new equipment, and the train itself have now been waiting two years to be released. What would be a five to six hour drive would only be a one to two hour ride.

Trains are everywhere in our society, we have jokes, toys, movies, and children’s television shows, but did you know rail transport started in 6th century Greece? The city of San Antonio, Texas is a fast-growing metropolitan city that has a very tremendous amount of people. It has been estimated that the city will grow by another million people in the next ten to twenty years. San Antonio’s traffic is becoming a huge issue and is quickly approaching to be one of the most congested areas in the states. The public transport in San Antonio consists of a very complex bus system, taxicabs, Trolley’s downtown, and the growing market of ridesharing drivers. San Antonio has had many talks and negotiations throughout the last two decades on getting a Light Rail system constructed to help with public transportation. This proposal is for specific businesses, the city of San Antonio and Bexar County to come to a funding agreement.

The United State has always been weak in public transportation and mass transit tools. California was once supposed to be different and revolutionized. Trolleys connecting the suburbs to the city and business districts was the main reason why cities expanded vertically. These mass transit tools organized the transits in an extremely environmentally friendly way. But the venue of cars and the thought of independence flattered americans pushing them to each buy a car, synonym of their independence. Now the trains and connecting public transportations have practically disappeared and are irrelevant.

Larry Page once said, “Especially in technology, [we] need revolutionary change, not incremental change.” Whether he is speaking about the Transcontinental Railroad system or the latest iPhone, what he says is true. If change is going to happen, it needs to bring a revolution of some kind along with it, otherwise, it will just become lost in history. This makes us wonder, how did the railroad system affect the US? The railroad system benefited the US most economically by industrializing towns it ran through, lowering shipping costs, and allowing for mass imports and exports.

Throughout the 1800’s there were more and more Americans that had moved onto the frontier of the West coast. The people of the United States believed they were destined to have their land stretched from the Pacific Ocean (the west) to the Atlantic Ocean (the east); from sea to shining sea. This settlement came from the fact that the west not only had an abundance of fertile land for farming, but it had such a great abundance of gold and mineral mining available. The Americans also believed that this was a way (and chance) to spread their beliefs! Many people saw the West as a new beginning, so they decided to head West and begin this journey. This is what the Americans believed they were destined to do… The rapid settlement of the West was caused by the great desire of the American

Fifteen thousand men. One thousand- two hundred dead. Twenty thousand pounds of bones. One thousand, seven hundred and fifty- six miles of railways. The creation of the transcontinental railroad began in 1863. It originated in the northern states and made its way to the west. Nobody knew that one day this new technology would lead to the future that we live today. During the time that the railroad was in the process of being created, many things were escalating in the US, all for the best. The Transcontinental Railroad transformed the United States more economically by creating new opportunities, improving transportation, and boosting imports and exports.

The transcontinental Railroad was completed on May 10, 1869. It had started in 1830 and took almost 4 decades to finish. By 1850 the track was about 9,000 miles long east of the Missouri River. At about the same time many people were moving west. It was a dangerous path over mountains, rivers, and deserts. Before the Transcontinental Railroad it cost almost $1,000 ($31,250.00 in 2015) to travel across the country, after the railroad it cost only $100 ($4,687.50 in

While the Federal-Aid Highway act of 1956 created the U.S. Interstate system and brought a nation together, the Federal-Aid Highway act of 1973 would later create division in federal and state political parties over future funding concerns. In the short run, President Nixon considered this act as a positive step for transportation and the economy. However, in the long run, this act led to the eroding of HTF’s, leaving both state and federal government debating over how to proceed in funding a transportation infrastructure that is at present time slowly crumbling. Political differences between federal and state agencies have brought the modernization process of the transportation infrastructure to a snail’s pace. In addition, the lengthy

to many cities two decades of rail roads have been built (history.com). during this time

Despite the tremendous economic success in Texas and its overall well-being, the state continues to face its nonstandard set of challenges that must be addressed immediately. Certainly, the most pressing issue is a deteriorating transportation infrastructure, which requires innovation, long-range planning and, of course, investment (Button & Reggiani, 2011). The following study focuses on the deteriorating transportation infrastructure as a major issue facing the state of Texas. The report will also discuss the positions of two major Texas political parties (Republican and Democratic) on the issue. It further explains the ways of their addressing it. Next, it will discuss the overall goals, the position, the level of lobbying and the

Another project they are working on is the Lone Star Regional Rail project. TxDot is proposing a regional passenger rail service connecting

Over the years, lawmakers didn’t make big investments into infrastructure in the U.S. because they didn’t know how to fund infrastructure without raising taxes or adding to the national deficit. So, the root cause of a problem like neglected infrastructure in the U.S. stems from American political processes. Political processes are basically how something gets done. In 2009, fiscally conservative Republicans turned down a $478 billion investment plan for infrastructure (Berman, 2015). But, I don’t think that lawmakers can keep putting off on investments in public safety because the U.S. is losing economic competitiveness, jobs, and growth. One of Trump’s biggest campaign promises was revitalizing U.S. roads, bridges, and airports. Trump says that his $550 billion infrastructure plan will grow the U.S. economy and create more jobs (Great Again, 2015). Trump’s also planning on private-sector investors funding this project with tax credits to give investors a return on their investments. I think it’s about time for a more reliable and efficient transportation system. For example, in 2007, the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145 people (Change, 2007). Faulty design led to the bridge collapse. One more example is an Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia in 2015, killing 8 people and injuring 200 people (Calvert & Loftus, 2015). The train accelerated toward a curve but investigators didn’t know if the engineer caused the train to speed up, if there was a mechanical error, or if there was something about the track that cased the crash. Airports in the U.S. are also operating beyond the capacity that they were intended to manage and that’s why terminals are crowded and there’s longer waiting times to get through customs especially at international airports. One time, Joe Bidden even compared LaGuardia Airport in New York to “some

The 21st century brought in two light rail systems. These rail systems were used to encourage more public travel development.

Public transportation is serious need of a massive overhaul in this nation. We are in desperate need to catch up to the European standard of public transportation in this country. In Europe, citizens can travel across cities, bodies of water, and even counties with their state of the art public transportation system. Europeans are not nearly as reliant on cars and oil as the United States is because they have the much more practical option of taking the transportation provided to them by the government to where ever they need to go. They have set a model that the United States needs to strive for and meet in the near future.

A Case Study on the California High Speed Rail System (CAHSR) - Is It Feasible?