The Economist provides an interesting and different media perspective on the potential of a nationwide high-speed rail network in the U.S.

From the point-of-view of the freight rail companies, whose nationwide system The Economist calls “the world’s best”, the prospect of high-speed trains sharing the tracks they’ve held almost exclusive access to for decades, isn’t something to cheer about.

To sum up…

…the problem with America’s plans for high-speed rail is not their modesty. It is that even this limited ambition risks messing up the successful freight railways. Their owners worry that the plans will demand expensive train-control technology that freight traffic could do without. They fear a reduction in the capacity available to freight. Most of all they fret that the spending of federal money on upgrading their tracks will lead the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the industry watchdog, to impose tough conditions on them and, in effect, to reintroduce regulation of their operations. Attempts at re-regulation have been made in Congress in recent years, in response to rising freight rates. “The freight railroads feel they are under attack,” says Don Phillips, a rail expert in Virginia.

h/t: Thomas Wheatley