Editor,
I enjoyed reading Ryan Floersheim's story about Aviva Brecher's recent presentation on Magnetic railways.
Getting back to planet Earth however, New Mexico has a snowball's chance in Hell of getting a Maglev train.
As a matter of fact, New Mexico, thanks to the Republicans in the House of Representatives, may soon lose The Southwest Chief, the railroad that connects Chicago to Los Angeles via downtown Albuquerque.
It is highly unlikely that the U.S. Congress would allocate $2 billion to fund theoretical research on untested magnetic trains when they won't even give Amtrak the $1.2 billion it needs to stay in business.
Amtrak President David L. Gunn recently spoke about the future of passenger train travel in the United States He predicted that no American alive today will see a costly network of trains running at 180 mph or faster, like the French TGV or the Japanese Shinkansen. Anyone who thinks we will have such a system is "smoking funny cigarettes," he said.
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Our national railroad system is a great way to travel across the country. They have been doing that job for more than 30 years now and they do it well.
Amtrak is affordable, it is comfortable, the food is outstanding and it is environmentally friendly. It is a great alternative to flying and, since Sept. 11, it has helped enhance our national security. I know all this because in the last year alone I have traveled more than 11,000 miles on Amtrak.
Amtrak is here and now. It is not some outrageously over-priced science fiction fantasy. We would be wise to support it as well as The Southwest Chief because the way things are going, it will be a miracle if New Mexico will have any passenger rail system in the next year, magnetic or otherwise.
Charles Reuben
UNM staff
