Mark Reutter in the Erie Times-News:
Mark Reutter, a fellow for the Progressive Policy Institute who spoke at a recent high-speed rail summit in Erie, would like to see Erie rail service make a return trip to the future.
From 1935 to 1950, he said, the fastest trains in the world were streamliners that routinely topped 90 mph.
Some of the fastest were among the 42 passenger trains that passed through Erie daily during the 1940s.
Those trains eventually fell victim to the rise of the interstate highway system and declining ridership.
Will faster trains be more popular trains? Only 12,000 people — about 32 a day — board in Erie each year.
