Infrastructure Waltz

My Day
By Dr. J. Ester Davis

Infrastructure where?  Who is your partner? Where do you start?  How do you balance greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, and clean energy?  What else was on the agenda at the G7 club of rich nation’s conference in Stockholm?  Are we considering regular trains, high-speed rail, more triple-decked highways or helicopter drones? What investment will best navigate, regulate, inspire our plant life and reduce underlying conditions for its citizens.

To make my point, let’s start with high-speed trains, because they are definitely a major part of the infrastructure messaging in America. I think the issue is not about bipartisan-ism.  It is more about ‘my country tis of thee’.  Around the world, Spain has the AVE, France has TGV, Japan has the Skinkansen and China operates more high-speed trains than the rest-of-the world.  The Shanghai Transrapid is an electric train that reaches about 268 miles per hour. Russia’s first high-speed rail service was between Moscow and Saint Petersburg in 2009.  It traveled at 155 mph.  Russia is planning international expansion designed to move more easily into Europe.

In America, there are now seven (7) states on the dance floor.  To date, Chicago is talking high-speed rail, but Chicago may have forgotten that railroads need land.  California Sacramento just reached an agreement to restore ‘nearly one billion in funding for a Los Angeles-to-San Francisco Bullet Train’, which the Trump administration revoked in 2019.  Amtrak Systems,  Washington, D.C., now 40 years old with the tunnel under the Hudson River, is seeking a new tunnel,  upgraded rail with lots of stops. Florida has embarked upon a private passenger train penned the Brightline and Texas, another private venture, Texas Partners LLC, though a bit behind, is making serious progress with the 90 minute trip from Dallas to Houston.

Several years ago on one of my world mission trips, a video was presented about the Behring Strait Bridge Tunnel that kept me in “research mode” for days.  The one thought I was most fascinated with was the hyped-proposed idea of driving your car ‘around-the-world’ using the Behring Strait Bridge. The future of rail through this tunnel ‘Alaska-to-Chukotka’ had visionary producers hiring scriptwriters.

This “mega engineering” project had a name, the Trans-Siberian Alaska Railroad making the global connection.  There have been several other names and attempts etching to tame this patch of forbidden earth belonging to the United States and Russia.   You do have to wonder will the “infrastructure minded” and the image that other countries have set for their communities, allow the ‘dance’ to grow global seeds.

America’s history is actually quite unbelievable.  Yes, we have ills, but I believe in progress which aligns with jobs and purpose.  My vote is for high-speed rails across our country and beyond. Since we have worn out our bridges and highways in existence since World War II, let’s have a love affair with the high-speed rail the next 50 years.   It will happen.  If you fail to believe this, I need only remind you of the “transfer of power” from the horse and buggy pony express to the “iron horse”, trained pigeons to passenger airplanes, full-bodied corsets-to-push up bras, telephone booths-to-internet.

Esterdavis2000@gmail.com