All I Wanted For Valentine's Day Was a High Speed Rail

This is a rant.

Eminem’s ‘The Real Slim Shady’ was released in 2000. I was a little child who did not understand the lyrics, but now that I’m re-listening to this genius remix of the song with the Thomas the Tank Engine theme… I am reminded that since the early 2000s, some countries have rapidly expanded their train systems in that time. Since that time, the country has added more than 20,000 miles of rail (CNN reported in 2022).

The MTA system here in NYC takes years to fix a single subway line. No shade—I love having access to public transportation in the U.S., but it has its problems. We live through delays, random staircases that should be classified as biohazards, and rising rates despite everything. But it is better than nothing.

Regulatory agencies in the United States are being gutted and the country has weathered several recent airplane collisions. I know that I am not the only American currently thinking to herself… “but what if we had more trains.” The train doesn’t go into the sky.

I love a train. I love a railroad. I love a Thomas the Tank Engine remix. And I love any (romantic) movie or series that features train infrastructure. Miss me with that airport crush, I want a train crush. I want a scene out of 5 Centimeters Per Second or from Before Sunrise.

I want a national railroad system that sparks easy travel that doesn’t involve a sky or where romance isn’t as easy to spark off. You won’t find this in a convenience store parking lot. Or at the strip mall.

I want to make it to Chicago or Montreal without it taking an entire day out of my life. I want to actually know what the central U.S. looks like without having to spend an arm and a leg. I want to live in a country where sustainable options and more transit options aren’t seen as a crazy dream while the rest of the industrialized world runs laps around us.

“Cars are better,” a relative told me once. “You’re self reliant.”

They grew up in a small town with almost not public transit. He had to beg the adults in his life for rides before he was old enough to have a license and a car of his own. I was on the NYC subway and on city buses in middle school to meet up with friends. I navigated the subway on crutches a few years ago when I fractured an ankle on the way to work. It wasn’t easy but the escalators and elevators made my life easier. I still had a social life, even though my mobility was limited for over a month.

Older commuters, parents with children in strollers, people in wheelchairs, and other who can’t easily drive can access public transit systems. They use public transit to travel to medical appointments, to go shopping, or to socialize. I don’t want to live in a country where they can’t easily and safely get from one state to the next.

I yearn for an affordable, accessible, high speed rail the way I missed my crappy high school boyfriend as a teenager. All of this despite the fact that he had no job and no skincare routine.

I am wistful and often daydream about a world where I can make it from NYC to Boston in 3 hours or less. A high speed rail rolling into a train platform is my version of Mr. Darcy walking across a field in his lil frilly blouse that he probably thrifted from a rich neighborhood. I don’t need a car. I only have eyes for a train that can safely get me from point A to point B.

The train conductor or the passenger sitting near me could be the love of my life. But I’ll never know. At least not for now.

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