In response to this excellent video by Alan Fisher.
This is not annoying, this is utterly infuriating how Alstom is trying to prevent the expansion of rail in the United States. While I do believe that all railroads should be nationalized as a capitalist (natural monopolies cannot work as private companies, they will overcharge and under serve, and that is why we have some of the worst railroads in the developed world) hampering Brightline is not going to get us to the future I want where AMTRAK serves more communities with faster, more reliable, and frequent service (where needed) nationwide. The Mercantilist American economic system hampers our growth every step of the way, whether it is bailing out failing private monopolies when we repair private tracks, the most onerous regulations in the world which makes it impossible to build good quality rail in this country, import and export restrictions meaning we pay far more for far worse train sets than any capitalist country, and the ability of states to block AMTRAK expansion, we truly live in a less free economy than any country in the European Union.
America needs to restart all of our regulations regarding constructing rail from scratch. We need to model our system off of the rules the European Union uses.
We need to eliminate all Buy American requirements. Let the market work.
We need to sign a free trade agreement with the European Union which isn’t simply Disney trying to extend copyright laws in Europe. 70 years after the death of the author is too long anyways.
Let America build rail. Streamline excessive regulations which increase costs without protecting safety or the environment.