To: oped@nytimes.com
Re: Trains and planes should be complementing, not competing with, each other
Date: Sunday, 4 April 04

In the article, "Bullet Train Remakes Map of South Korea" in Friday's NYT, the author refers to competition between air and rail transport as if it were the most natural thing in the world. In fact, it is what I refer to as an "insanity of normality".

There is a limit to the drain and strain we can place on our planet's natural resources (treasures) and carrying capacity without it having catastrophic consequences for our children and coming generations (see The straw(s) that broke the camel's back).

With global population approaching 7-9 billion, unrestricted air travel is non-sustainable and criminally irresponsible for politicians to allow. There are journeys where air travel is the only viable option (over oceans, for example), but where rail links can offer an alternative, being sustainable virtually without limit, they should be given priority.

Trains and planes (and road transport) should be complementing, not competing with, each other. Because it is the only way to achieve sustainability, without which we are doomed.

To the predictable response, "But this is the way a free-market economy works", I say, then we had better change it - fast!