'Amtrak Joe', Pete Buttigieg and America's train revolution
It’s hard to think of America’s coming train revolution (click here and here for my blogs on that) without alighting on the Great Man Theory of History. Which is to say individuals in charge of something — a country, a project — can affect the course of history for good or bad on account of their character, inclinations and behaviour.
Had ‘Amtrak Joe’ not been US president at this point of time, would America’s massive planned investment in its trains ever been seriously contemplated?
Had Pete Buttigieg not been Mr Biden’s Transportation Secretary, would the blue skies thinking have translated into action?
The map from the US High Speed Rail Association shows the extent of the change that’s coming.
What’s planned is more than infrastructural change. It’s a plan for shift of mindset. America has been car-dominated for decades with hundreds of billions spent to build the Interstate Highway System in t…
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