Reply #3: Indeed -

[Snow]

I agree with you totally about the disgraceful state of the national rail system, and would like to add a thought or two of interest. First California actually funds three Amtrak routes instate, and the ridership on this rose by a third last year. Second, the so-called high-speed Amtrak lines are actually abuot the speed of the fast trains in <U>Korea</U> that I rode in, let' see, 1993 or '94 when I was there visiting relatives. Since then, Korea has dumped those trains as outdated and replaced them with really fast trains....so we need to make Korea jealous first before we can even think about making Europe jealous.

Finally, the vast majority of miles and therefore of crashes are the short errand runs - and to fix that problem we need something other than long-haul trains, probably something other than local buses, even, since those are often centered around eomployment considerations rather than errand-running. Possibilities are bikes/trikes, super golf-carts, or neighborhood designed so that homes and shops are close together.