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Competition is much harder for railroads than airlines because railroads by their nature are highly capital intensive. An airplane can be purchased for only a few hundred million dollars but to lay high-speed rail lines it costs tens of billions of dollars.

With only a few exceptions private companies are not willing to build railroads anymore. There is one exception I can think of however and that is a new high-speed rail line in Italy that will directly compete with the Italian nationalized rail system, Trenitalia ( Article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080715/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_italy_private_rail_service).

In the U.S. it would probably be much harder to create competition. Even if Amtrak were to privatized it would not solve this because it is only a passenger rail provider and does not own track in the U.S. outside of the DC to Boston NE Corridor line. Amtrack leases trackage rights from BNSF, UP or CSX freight providers throughout the rest of the country.

Potential investors would likely shy away from any offers to run passenger routes to compete with existing Amtrak service because they would still have to lease trackage rights from BNSF,UP, or CSX. These freight railroads are notorious for giving their trains preference over Amtrack trains (part of the reason Amtrack trains almost always run late). A lot of the railroad's ability to control its service would be out of its hands.

Even the big three freight RRs CSX, UP, and BNSF would be unlikely to run passenger trains on their potentially profitable routes. CSX for example has a line from NY to DC which runs parallel to Amtrack's NE corridor but 5 miles to the west (the former B&O; RR). CSX simply believes it is more profitable to use the line exclusively for freight and not compete with Amtrack although nothing stops any freight RRs from starting passenger service.

The bottom line is it will take a government program or at least govt. support to create a San Francisco to L.A. route or a NY or Chicago line. This doesn't mean that the fares on these lines can't be low without competition but it means but it would have to come from the service provider who sees some rationale in keeping the fares lower for a quick, easy and enjoyable service.

France has very affordable fares on it's TGV service through out the country (Check out fares: http://www.tgv-europe.com/en/home/). French tax payers subsidize the SNCF fares but they can all benefit by taking high-speed trains throughout their beautiful country (and spending the money they saved when they get to their destinations).

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I'm working on it!!!

I do think one of the reasons why the prices are high between cities right now is that there is no competition.

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OMG! I'm definitely voting this up. Oddly, I've been thinking the exact same thing the past few days. Flying is so damn expensive; we need to cutdown on gas consumption; and, a little competition between railways and airways can help drive down some prices.

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It's a great idea to connect cities with high-speed transportation however there are a few major draw backs from high speed rail. I will address your pros in the order you listed them: 1) Cheaper, 2) better for the environment and 3)easier for individuals, spurring commerce.

First, cheaper is not necessarily true. In Europe you can easily fly between most cities serviced by high-speed rail (HSR) on budget carriers for less than a HSR ticket. Even in the U.S. from NY to DC it costs somewhere in the ways of $250 for the 2.5 hr. Acela HSR ticket. You can find $150 fares on lots of major U.S. carries between DC and NY. I doubt the fare from San Francisco to LA will be much better cheaper but still you can fly that route for $150 rt also.

Secondly, HSR does not pollute as much as airplanes but its construction requires moving people just as the interstate highway system did back in the 1950s. The U.S. is densely populated and construction of HSR would require moving a lot of people from their homes and upsetting a lot of the people who remain close to the rail lines. Noise pollution is still pollution. Still faster than HSR is Maglev technology which is currently being used in China. This has the added problem that health risks might exist from the magnetic fields around the tracks(although this is still debated).

Lastly, I can agree with your point about commerce and I think it's the key selling point especially on a route from NY to Chicago which would tie the PA,MI,OH, and IN rust belts into a HSR corridor linking two of largest commercial centers in the U.S.

On this last point alone I think HSR needs to developed under the Obama stimulus plan but there are certainly pros and cons to this complicated issue.

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Dave:
I can vibe with that but I always wonder if it will be so much cheaper. I live in Philly, amid our country's densest clusters of major metro areas. Amtrak connects them all, but the prices are often outrageous - high enough at least that I tend to take a bus instead. Why don't all business travelers, tourists and other visitors take trains from Boston to New York to Philly to Baltimore to D.C. to, even, as you suggest, Miami? Not necessarily because there aren't options, but that the options are too costly for casual riders. ....Can you work on that?

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Thanks for the props, David. The toolkit will probably always be a work in progress. I can't ever stop tinkering with things. But if there's one thing I've learned from working with you and Spot.us, it's launch now and tweak as you go.

I'm taking feature requests. Keep an eye out for more granular feeds and more ways to share tools and links.

And I'd love to see a Mindy McAdams brain-dump there, too. :)

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So Dave... what about yourself? What says you?

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It's wonderful that you all are in such a positive mood (and I agree that one way or another, 2009 will be a major turning point), but for anyone who wants predictions for 2009 tempered with an element of realism, I offer my own at News After Newspapers: http://newsafternewspapers.blogspot.com/2008/12/out-on-my-limb-predictions-for-2009.html

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Thanks for this Dave. You just convinced me to create a filter in Gmail to auto-delete anything from the AOL domain (one time Cal Thomas was checking his email behind me--he uses AOL, too).

Spot.Us is one of the most refreshing ideas in news, whether ends up being a great success or not.

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Props for including that he still uses an AOL.com e-mail address. And yes, I cannot help but judge him for that, especially when asserting knows more than you.

Very suspect considering he's never discovered a better e-mail client.

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Knight Ridder did lead the way - look up Viewtron, in which Roger Fidler was a leader. More than 200 employees in Miami in 1984 churned out interactive news, ads, shopping and weather 24/7 from offices in the Sun Bank building on Lincoln Road, Miami Beach.

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Knight Ridder was so prescient, but why didn't they lead the way?

Also, check this out (from That's the Press, Baby blog):

Buzz Merritt's "Knightfall" contains the famous 1995 discussion between former Knight Ridder CEO Tony Ridder and his top editors:

"Tony Ridder, the new chairman and CEO, had the difficult task of addressing a roomful of [the recently deceased chairman Jim] Batten proteges who, he knew, were at best wary of him. After a speech with brief and seemingly obligatory bows to the need for good newspaper content, he opened the floor to questions.

"The first one was: 'Tony, what keeps you up at night; what do you most worry about?'

"He thought for a minute. 'Electronic classified,' he said.

"The air went out of the room."

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1993?! Wow, I had no idea this started that long ago.

The industry can't say it snuck up on them. Although, I'm sure they'll tell the public that it did.

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This is a great. Amazing that enough time has passed where we're talking history of Drupal now.

Here's another good rundown of this period: http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/open-source-force-behind-obama-campaign

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...three fingers pointing back...

Admittedly though, there is one major problem with Spot.us -

it's addictive.

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Thanks for all the encouraging words everyone. Steve Outing - You rock! I am a big fan.

I think today I'm going to try a Gary V inspired video rant post.

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Dave -- Don't assume that just because this guy's job title is "publisher" that he's a journalist. Odds are, he's probably never been a reporter. Most publishers rise through the ranks on the business side and wouldn't know how to "stick to a story" because they've never reported one.

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"On résiste à l'invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l'invasion des idées."

Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.
Victor Hugo

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David: Sounds like you have a good attitude about the hate mail. I've gotten my share over the years as I've written about new ideas for the news industry. For me it's typically been traditional editors and publishers (occasionally reporters) who see the "radical" ideas that I've presented in my columns and blogs and think I'm out to destroy the newspaper business. One guy became sort of an e-mail enemy for a while (publisher of a small paper). All part of the fun of being on the bleeding edge. Keep on! You're doing great, and you're not alone in getting the hate mail. That one is particularly nasty; some of mine have been similar. You just have to laugh and know you're right. 8^)

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Novelty Words of Encouragement

1. Unlike the guy who wrote you that email, I am an adult, as are the people who disperse the grant money, and we support your idea.

2. You have a hater, which is a very good thing for you, but a very bad thing for your hater. While you solve old problems with new methods your hater will make you look even better by clinging stubbornly to outdated traditions (read: AOL) which will ultimately fall into disuse.

3. You are also exemplary for being able to elicit a gem of a hate letter from the sea of The Internets. I would suggest you put up a page where we can view your treasure-chest of haterisms, but it may run contrary to your ethics. (Personally, I would do something that petty, but you mustn't tarnish your pristine journalistic facade.)

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OMG!!! Only 2,499,999 more jobs to go!!!

Haha, I kid!

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My list largely mirrors the linkers you've compiled here. I've wrangled them into my Delicious network to power a daily list of "journalism links and opportunities." I don't want to "recommend" myself, but would love to get some feedback on my ongoing experiment in curation on The Almighty Link.

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Update: the hard drive is safe!!!

But the rest of the computer smells like a latte :(

Looks like I'm going to spend some of my holiday money on myself.....

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Good luck. Coffee/computer incidents are frightening, given how often we use the pair at the same time.... :)

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Thanks for the shout out, Dave! I almost always love your digg submissions, btw. You should do more. :)

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