Peer pressure

Last week’s Newsweek featured yet another high-speed rail proposal, this one by America 2050:

I’ve discussed high-speed rail before.   Whatever the average Texan thinks about its feasibility in Texas, this map is likely to provoke a uniform reaction:   Why the hell should the Midwest get high-speed rail get before the Texas Triangle?   America 2050 proposes linking Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and St. Louis ten years before Houston and Dallas, and twenty years before San Antonio and Austin.  This, even though the Texas Triangle is more compact than the Midwest and growing at a much faster rate.

Although high-speed rail is taking a long time to get off the ground (so to speak), once a region  starts actual construction a lot of the doubts elsewhere will vanish under the pressure to remain competitive.  Even if most Texas are skeptical that HSR will produce much economic benefit, they will not want to gamble on being wrong, particularly since it would take 10-20 years to catch up.  The construction of a real HSR line in California or in the Midwest will likely spark a nationwide race for rail. 

On a related note, Tyler Cowen discussed Texas HSR a few weeks ago.  (He’s mostly skeptical.)

H/t The Urbanophile.