Getting US Back on Track Editorial Widen the roads to let more cars on the highways and add more routes and planes to carry more passengers through the air. There's talk in Washington of growing the infamous Beltway to some 20 lanes. But before we pave over more land, or line up airplanes nose to tail in the air, let's pay added attention to trains, especially the fast ones. The US, whose westward expansion was helped by a monumental effort to build the transcontinental railroad, has let its trains languish.
Trains are a staple and mostly efficient mode of travel in Europe.
High-speed trains are the norm in Japan. Amtrak had a successful run of the first US bullet-type train last month. The Acela regional train between Boston, New York, and Washington pulled encouragingly into the station a couple of minutes early. It departs with paying passengers Dec. 11. States, too, are seeing great possibilities in the use of trains to move people on shorter hauls.