From Ann Arbor.com

A massive national effort is underway to upgrade our transportation infrastructure. While the current federal administration is setting the nationwide vision for rail travel, Michigan is dangerously close to falling out of the equation.

Our state has routinely cut funding for Amtrak. Our rail service from Detroit to Chicago takes 5.5 hours, is unreliable and doesn’t run frequently enough. We can no longer dodge this critical investment. Unless we want to be left behind, Michigan must show Washington we’re truly committed to a comprehensive overhaul of our rail system. We must continue to modernize our rails now to attract federal dollars to make that happen.

A comprehensive effort for transit in our state would lay the ground work for Michigan to reap all the benefits high-speed rail travel has to offer: creating construction jobs, connecting businesses and helping them grow, cutting travel time to hubs like Chicago by a couple hours, reducing our dependency on foreign oil and helping new industries locate here.

The drawbacks of not upgrading our rail system should serve as even greater motivation to act. With all of Michigan’s economic struggles, we can’t afford to fall further behind. We’ve all seen the devastating effects of the auto industry’s delay in adjusting to the global economy and how it helped deepen our recession – we’re paying for it daily in lost jobs, home foreclosures and continued cuts to priorities like education and public safety.

High-speed rail will make Michigan a better place for businesses to succeed. We have top-notch research institutions, unparalleled manufacturing know-how and fine colleges and universities that continue to produce qualified graduates. It would be tragic to let this all fall by the wayside because we’re not connected to a modern regional transit system.

Naysayers will roll out the same old arguments about government spending. And I understand that, but we’re not isolated from global change. We can’t sit idle, because the world will leave us behind – and they’ll do it in part – on high-speed rails. We don’t have a choice. Yes, this will take investment, but innovation and progress always do. 

I’m not saying we need a 220-mph bullet train tomorrow – that’s not really feasible without smaller steps first – but we need to move Michigan forward. Letting our transportation fall even more behind is like putting a big “Closed For Business” sign up across Michigan. We can’t afford that. We need jobs, we need businesses and we need investment. Investors, entrepreneurs and federal transportation officials are looking decades down the road to determine how to use their resources today.
 We can’t let our short-term struggles force us into short-sighted policies that will hinder our recovery and haunt us for the next century. The stakes are just too high. 

The future of our state and our children will be dictated by the decisions we make today. If we choose not to develop high-speed rail we will lose more jobs, more employers and more investment. We need all those things to rebuild our economy, move Michigan forward and create a brighter tomorrow. We need to develop high-speed rail in Michigan and we need to do it quickly.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Pam Byrnes, D-Lyndon Township, can be contacted by phone at (517) 373-0828 or toll-free at (800) 645-1581. Her e-mail address is pambyrnes@house.mi.gov and her website is byrnes.housedems.com.

Source: http://www.annarbor.com/news/opinion/michigan-cant-lag-behind-on-high-speed-rails/