Build trains, not highways, to stimulate the economy

We need to tell our elected officials in Congress and state legislatures that Trains for America (as a good example) seems like an economic stimulus proposal that a huge number of organizations could hook up with and willingly support. Whether saving energy, farmland, wildlife habitat, air quality, or human lives, rail works better than highways. Rail-based transportation systems conserve land because they tend to cluster development around train stations – rather than dispersing development the way car, truck, and highway-based transportation systems do. For this reason, it would make sense for environmental organizations to support restoration and expansion of train systems for local (light rail, street cars, and trolleys) and inter-city service (heavy rail). These organizations should include: Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, and American Farmland Trust, to name but a few.

Numerous organizations advocate for energy conservation and efficiency. They should also support trains rather than highways for the economic stimulus packages bouncing around Washington lately. These organizations should include: Crude Awakening of Austin, Light Rail Now, Energy Bulletin, American Wind Energy Association, National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association, and the Apollo Alliance. This list, like the earlier one, could go on indefinitely.

Even labor unions and health advocacy organizations should support rail-based transportation. It will save us money (trains last longer than cars or trucks and require less energy to transport people and goods), reduce our trade deficit (fewer imported cars and barrels of oil), improve air quality (assuming electric trains: controlling power plant emissions works more effectively than policing tailpipe emissions), and vastly reduce highway and traffic fatalities. AARP should support train service improvements because elderly people need transportation alternatives to driving, flying, or riding buses. Trains just work better for the elderly and disabled.

Scads of people keep re-inventing the wheel as they worry themselves sick about energy, the environment, habitat loss, and global climate change. Folks, we need to work together to solve these problems. If we don’t, the robber barons will ruin this planet for all of us. Trains won’t solve all of our problems, but they can help in a really big way. Instead of doing what we’ve done for decades to stimulate the economy, we need to focus on the future of our planet. Trains can help wean us off of fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Let’s not dig ourselves deeper into the hole.

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