1964, Japanese high-speed passenger train Shinkansen went into service, just in time for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The exciting train carried passengers from Tokyo to Osaka in a record of 4 hours, traveling at a speed of 200 miles per hour. The line was extended and now the network serves all of Japan's major cities. The Japanese developed an even faster one, known today as Maglev. The train reaches up to speed of 361 miles per hour!
Talk about public transportation and lack thereof in California! Amtrak and Metrolink are falling apart. Recently out of real curiosity I took Greyhound for a 100 mile travel-- what was a 2 hour ride turned into a whole day travail, waiting in line to get on the bus, and then being in a bus that traveled at a snail's pace! My goodness, we have come so far as to travel in outer space, but not far enough to have decent means of transportation, besides our oil-driven trash box cars. When I moved to California from Moscow, I was appalled with the fact that the buses and trains were used by the poorest of the poor and not having a car was equivalent to a major disability because public transportation was not reliable...
And no one will dare to deny the effects of this on air quality and global warming...
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