If you agreed with Randal O’Toole’s arguments against high-speed rail for North Carolina, you might enjoy this update from Newsweek:

The Obama administration has envisioned a high-speed rail system to rival those overseas. But
despite $8 billion in federal support, U.S. rail remains the world?s
caboose. Most of the money has gone to projects in Florida, California,
and the Midwest, all of which have suffered setbacks.

The Florida line, which would link Tampa to
Orlando, has been diced up by designs for five station stops; a bullet
train would beat a car by only 30 minutes. Californians have sued the
state to keep special elevated tracks from becoming a ?Berlin Wall?
through their neighborhoods, while gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman
wants to shelve the idea until better economic times. And Ohio?s leg of
the Chicago hub?where trains would reach a sedate top speed of 79mph and
between-city averages as low as 39mph?has become a political whipping
post. Gubernatorial frontrunner John Kasich has pledged to divert train
funds to roads?a move that drew a rebuke from Transportation Secretary
Ray LaHood, who remains optimistic. ?We?re in the be-ginning stages,? he
tells NEWSWEEK.