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Soon, the U.S. government will publish its first-ever national rail plan, laying out a vision for the future of freight and passenger rail. It is supposed to be released by Sept. 15, but a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, Warren Flatau, said in an e-mail that Congress had recently requested an “additional level of specificity in the document,” and the agency is studying how to proceed to provide a thorough and timely report.

We'll all be better off if the Feds converts the money that would be spent into $100 bills and start a big bonfire on the Capital Mall.

It would be a spectacle. Bread and circus style. But the landscape would not be disrupted, and we would not be importing rolling stock from outside the US and when the fire burns out it's over. There's no maintenance costs, with USPO like service and costs to operate.

Sure trains whisk people around Europe at high speed. Take for example the Paris to Strasburg run. It's 120e per person each way, or 480e for two per round trip. We rented a car for the same trip for 100e, including fuel and way more versatile.

Now in Italy, with large population centers within 150 miles of each other the trains work well, but they are cheap.

Same logic applies here, large population centers within close proximity, cheap fares. Come up a proposal that includes all this, then we'll listen.