by Mark Miller
Smart Nation
The United States is currently being jarred by a market-driven transition toward more efficient energy use. The U.S. oil problem is huge – oil prices have doubled in the last year
, and quadrupled in the last four years. 
World oil prices have quadrupled in the last four years. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency.
The increasing cost of transporting goods in trucks on the highway is already causing a frenzy of railroad construction. The Washington Post reports that profit in the railroad industry has doubled since 2003. Stock of the largest U.S. railroad, the Union Pacific, has nearly quadrupled in price since 2001 from under $40 to over $150 in 2008. Various sources report that rail freight transport is 3 to 4 times as energy efficient as transport by 18 wheelers.
A massive change in America’s transportation infrastructure is happening even as we speak. But this adjustment will not occur fast enough to prevent economic harm to the working class of America. These are the people for whom increasing consumer prices and transportation costs will take the greatest toll. Already car companies are advertising “MPG” to sell cars.
What America needs is a passenger and freight rail system that is at least as fast and at least as affordable as highway transport. This already exists in smart developed nations such as Switzerland, where forethought and smart planning have prompted the nation to lay down an efficient, smooth-running, consumer-affordable rail network, the densest in the world.
An Intercity train about to depart from the main train station in Zurich, Switzerland, March 2008.
Opponents to the idea claim that the population density of the U.S. isn’t high enough to support a rail system. Horsecrap. Take Los Angeles, whose metropolitan area is home to over 13 million people in an area of 12,000 square kilometers (one quarter the size of Switzerland). This doesn’t include the 4 million people living in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.
LA’s population density: 2,665/sq. mi. or 1,029/km².
Switzerland’s population density: 480/sq. mi or 181.4/km².
