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Historian Richard White writes for Zocalo that the urban romantic image of a high-speed train zipping coolly across the great open beauty of California could use a dose of reality. Luckily, he writes, the past provides it. He starts with the first trains to run in California, an experience that provides many lessons to the enthusiasts of today.
The first thirty years of the old relationship between train and California were more than bad. They were horrid...California should have learned something from this. Do not build large railroads ahead of demand. Do not quickly fund those things that we might be able to do at less cost, more efficiently, and with improved technology later when we really need it. Do not funnel huge amounts of public money into private hands on the basis of only promises of benefits. Remember to calculate capital costs accurately.
But because I am an American historian, I also know what California’s answer will be: it will be different this time. It is a new day. That was then; this is now. California and the railroads were both young and foolish in those days. We have seen high-speed rail in France, Japan, and now China. It works. And if the French, Japanese, and Chinese can make it work, certainly Californians can make it work.
This is a tough job for an historian. I need help. I may need my brother, the therapist. Because California is not France, Japan, or China.
White says he has no desire to extend California’s "doomed" love affair with the internal combustion engine: "But I also don’t want California squandering the money needed for schools, universities, infrastructure, hospitals, and the most basic kinds of assistance to the poor on fantasies of a better life on the Silver Streak."
Related from California Watch: Lawsuits could stall high-speed rail plans