An Open Letter to Everyone Complaining about the Airlines Crisis
Dear disgruntled rider,
Firstly let me say I feel your pain. I’ve flown three dozen times or so throughout my life, and now more than ever, it has become a massive burden. All the joy has been sucked out of the experience altogether.
But this is where the sympathy ends — we are all to blame.
Why?
First, a tremendous amount of our tax dollars flow into airports, TSA, and air traffic control systems. We’re spending $7 billion on TSA alone. If we’re pouring so much money into air travel, why aren’t we getting a quality service that people can depend on? We need infrastructure in place to prevent massive shutdown catastrophes, such as with United, Delta, and Southwest. The consolidated nature of airlines makes them unable to assist you in pivoting to another flight or alleviating your dilemma in any meaningful way.
But here’s the main problem: we’re putting all our eggs in one basket, so to speak. Or two baskets, rather. So many people decrying the airlines are saying they’ve created a system so efficient at extracting your money that it becomes inflexible, and a slight technical hiccup can grind everything to a halt. But is that really all? The choices of travel have become: trudge through the airport security and hope that your flight hasn’t been delayed or cancelled, or decide to drive for hours and hope that traffic hasn’t backed up on the interstate. But to no one’s surprise, your flight has been delayed, and — oh look — traffic is at a standstill on the interstate because there was an accident, and everyone is being funneled into one lane. What great options!
If only there were a third way to travel long distances that isn’t such a nightmare!
Oh wait, there actually is.
Have you ever ridden a train before? You may have, but chances are you haven’t…because it really sucks in this country. Have you ever tried Amtrak?
Despite the unspeakable amount of taxpayer money being spent on highways and airlines, year after year Congress has chosen not to support passenger rail as a legitimate travel option for Americans, while pretty much every industrialized country has a vibrant passenger rail network supporting millions and, in the case of China, billions of people. These systems are frequent and reliable, and some trains can travel over 300 mph.
High-speed rail is perfect for distances between 100 to 500 miles — a distance that airlines are becoming increasingly reluctant to support. If other countries can have passenger rail systems that are useful and dependable, surely we can too.
You know firsthand the heartburn caused by air travel. I’m sure you also know the monotony and soul-crushing frustration caused by sitting in traffic. Just know that there is another way.
I know one thing for certain: if we build it, I will ride.
