The Kroog Versus The Crazy Train

Yesterday I talked about Republican opposition to rail corridor stimulus in Ohio and Wisconsin, especially.  Paul Krugman weighs in on this crazy train this morning:

It’s not too hard to understand, of course: in real life, as opposed to bad novels, railroads aren’t run by rugged individualists (nor should they be). In fact, passenger rail is generally run by government; even when it’s partially privatized, as in Britain, it’s done so with heavy state intervention to preserve some semblance of competition in a natural monopoly. So rail doesn’t fit the conservative vision of the way things should be.

I suppose there’s some echo of this attitude on the other side; people like me probably have a slight affinity for rail because it’s a kind of socially provided good. But I don’t think it’s comparably irrational: rail just makes a lot of sense for densely populated regions, especially but not only the Northeast Corridor. New York could not function at all without commuter rail, and Amtrak even as it is is crucial to intercity traffic — it’s not just a question of expanding airport capacity, we just don’t have the airspace.

I’d add an informal observation: on casual observation, rail makes even more sense in the digital age. I almost always take trains both to New York and to Washington, and consider the time spent on those trains part of my productive hours — with notebooks and 3G, an Amtrak quiet car is basically a moving office. And I don’t think I’m alone in that.

Passenger rail in the Midwest, especially Ohio, makes financial sense too.  The reason people drive so much up I-71 and I-75 instead of taking other forms of transportation is A) there's only planes, and B) Cincy-NKY International airport is basically the most expensive airport in the country to fly out of.  A short commuter flight to Indianapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Memphis or Atlanta is certainly possible, Cincy is positioned excellently for reaching all of the Midwest.  You also pay out the nose for doing so.  People drive to Dayton to fly out of here because it's cheaper.

Passenger rail in the Midwest would be an excellent alternative, and that would start with the Cincy-Cleveland corridor.  There's no reason why this town couldn't be a rail hub too.  Look at it this way:  it would cut down on drunk driving during football season around here.