High-speed rail development in China is on the fast track, but sometimes at the expense of safety measures. (Photo by Taylor McConnell via Flickr)
When you expect construction of an 820-mile railway for 100 mph trains to be done in time for your political party’s 90th birthday, the results can be deadly.
Looking back on this weekend’s tragic train crash near Wenzhou, China that left at least 35 dead, I can’t help but think that despite the autocratic fanfare that has fueled so much investment in green energy and public infrastructure in China, not all that glitters is gold. Maybe infighting between two political parties that accuse each other of killing the “American way” isn’t so bad after all.
High-speed rail in Oregon has been a hot topic for years, a polarizing topic in a climate of tight budgets. At this point, the proposed Eugene-Portland high-speed rail is still in the pay-consultants-money-to-find-best-route stage. MyEugene.org reported in May that the Oregon Department of Transportation received $8.9 million to fund a new statewide freight and passenger rail plan, an Environmental Impact Statement and preliminary engineering to renovate Union Station in Portland.
All that planning is well and good, but the project will cost upward of $2.2 billion, and the EIS isn’t planned to be complete until the summer of 2013. But just as I’ll suffer through seemingly petty debates between the two political parties in our often dysfunctional democracy, I would rather have a railway that is foolproof than have it fail because some politician wanted a shiny birthday present.
Photo by Taylor McConnell via Flickr