Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Bullet Trains In 2000, Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment requiring the legislature to develop a high speed (bullet) train with construction to begin no later than November 2003.  The bullet train will connect the state's five major metropolitan areas.  The rail authority recently released their 2004 Annual Report to the Governor and the Legislature.  Many, including the Mayor of Jacksonville, are still hoping to derail the project.  California's "baby bullet" train made its first trip last week.  The baby bullet only runs at 79 MPH (Florida's train would go at least 120+ MPH) however, but it did cut 39 minutes off the time it takes local trains to go from San Jose to San Francisco. Meanwhile, travelers in Taiwan will soon be able to reduce the time they spend going from Taibei to Gaoxiong (345 kilometers) from 5 hours to 85 minutes.  The first trains, part of a $12 billion contract with Japan, were delivered in May.  Taiwan is all about business as you can tell by looking at the Bureau of Foreign Trade's "Taiwan Trade" portal.  Taiwan's government also has a great webcam site. Taiwan's government news headlines 9:27:22 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 David Fletcher.