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American transportation investments been car-dominated since hundreds of billions were spent to build the Interstate Highway System in the 20th century. But Buttigieg, echoing his boss, President Joe Biden (who is sometimes called "Amtrak Joe," thanks to his habit of riding the train between his home state of Delaware and Washington) has spoken recently of upgrading American rail.
"We gotta take things to the next level," Buttigieg said on MSNBC last week. "I think we have a real opportunity to do that especially with the bipartisan appetite for real investments that we have before us this year."
Buttigieg has a history of thinking differently on transportation. As mayor of South Bend, Indiana, he led an effort to re-orient its downtown around pedestrians and cyclists, rather than motorists. Now he's working on a bigger stage, and will try to succeed where others have fallen short.
America had the fastest passenger trains in the world in 1959, according to Amtrak, but now 18 nations are faster than its highest-speed option, the Acela, which runs between Boston and Washington DC.
"We've been asked to settle for less in this country," Buttigieg said in the MSNBC interview. "I just don't know why people in other countries ought to have better train service and more investment in high-speed train service than Americans."
A decade ago, Biden and the Obama administration pushed for high-speed rail nationwide, but they lacked needed funding and political support.
Obama's talk of faster trains wasn't well-received in Republican-led states. Republican Governors in Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida turned down billions in federal funding, scuttling high-speed rail projects in those states.
