White House pitches rail project as job creator

President Obama is pitching his plan for a $8 million project for a high-speed rail program. This project is an attempt generate more jobs for the U.S. It is also supposed to "revitalize" the domestic rail industry.

In Obama's State of the Union speech on Wednesday night, he may have made it sound very simple. He stated that these trains would "create jobs and help our nation move goods, services, and information: White House spokesman Bill Burton also stated that "the program creates tens of thousands of jobs and is the largest investment in infrastructure since the interstate highway system was created."

Transportation experts say that there are great reasons to build these high-speed trains. The trains would be able to transport people between cities that are 100-500 miles apart, and would not cause as much environmental damage as cars or airplanes.

However, this train project is more complicated than it sounds. Experts are worried that this would not create jobs as quick as we would hope, and much of this project relies on companies found in Europe or Asia, because of their experience with building, supplying, and operating these high-speed trains. Rail experts said designing and building jobs that we would hope would go to Americans would go abroad to Europe and Asia, since it will take a while for the U.S. to develop its own domestic high-speed rail industry.

This project sounds very controversial but it is still interesting that Obama is taking his promises to such an extent. These trains sound like they would be great for our environment, but not too beneficial for our economy, since most of the jobs would be in Europe and Asia. What do you guys think?