Today is the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech

Apparently the King family owns the copyright on the text and the video of the entire speech. However, there is a PDF version available at the National Archives that you can download and read.

Why Don't More U.S. Airports Connect to Amtrak? | The Atlantic Cities

Anyone that knows me knows my infatuation with high-speed rail. However, Eric Jaffe of The Atlantic Cities asks a more basic question: Why Don't More U.S. Airports Connect to Amtrak?

This is a good question and worth answering (and I'm more optimistic of the chances of success than the writer is). The airlines' biggest gripe with intercity and high speed rail is it would take away passengers from them. However, rail is more suited for shorter distances to be traveled, which are not well served by airlines nor are they big money makers for the airlines.

However, rail working in conjunction with air travel would go a long way towards making connections easier (like when I was in college and flew from New York to Chicago to catch a mini-jet to Des Moines to take a van to Iowa City) or bringing people from nearby, but not drivable, distances to the airport (like if I had the option to take a train from Iowa City directly to O'Hare to catch a flight to LGA.)