Mikel Ortega/Wikipedia
High speed rail car, Spain
Re "How Not to Plan for the Future" (editorial, April 21):
Investing in high-speed rail in the Northeast corridor may make sense because it has a population density sufficient to generate enough riders to sustain the billions of dollars required to build, maintain and operate the system. Given the current federal spending freeze on high-speed rail, I believe that the time is right to consider seeking private capital to help shoulder the substantial investment needed to achieve true high-speed rail along the corridor.
Under this kind of a public-private partnership, high-speed rail projects would be evaluated by private investors based on the full costs of installation, maintenance and operation, as well as on economic benefits to riders--rather than blithely following the costly "build it and they will come" philosophy.
If we're able to achieve this partnership in the Northeast corridor, it could serve as a model for how to modernize our nation's crumbling infrastructure.
Richard G. Geddes is an adjunct scholar at AEI.








