I completely agree. The common wisdom is that modern passenger rail would fail in America. Really, I think that it can be a huge success, but only in local li

I completely agree. The common wisdom is that modern passenger rail would fail in America. Really, I think that it can be a huge success, but only in local links. Recent discussion in my area (Eastern Washington state) has broached the idea of a fast light rail service among the Spokane/Coeur D'alene area (tech center of E. Wa.) down to the Tri-Cities (which have a DoE National Lab and the Hanford Nuclear site) and the Moscow/Pullman access which has two big state universities (WSU and UI). Those kinds of local links can work and be a great thing for economic and intellectual interchange, I think. Trans-continental railways probably aren't the best solution for cross-country travel anymore, but locally I think they're the way to go. Just look at the UK: light rail is a huge boon for commuters going to and from the London orbital. Then again, IANARE (I Am Not A Railroad Engineer).