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The biggest drawback with any rail transport is that they are spinal, in that they go in one direction in a serpentine or in a sinuate run and connect only a few places. They lack sprawl. Railways can never form a network. When railways ran on steam there were frequent stops for water & coal and these stops became nucleus for the growth of small towns where people built houses very close to the stops. Some of these towns became cities and now most people live far away from these stops which became stations with the advent of diesel & electric trains. For people living far away from stations individually owned cars are a blessing since they enjoy doorstep delivery and also enjoy the freedom of personal travel schedule. High Speed Trains are a great privilege for a selected few who live close to the stations but for those who have to surrender their land for building this luxury have only the pleasure of seeing the High Speed Trains whiz past their houses with no hopes of ever enjoying a ride on this White Elephant. It is robbing Peter to pay Paul. HST is the work of modern day Robin Hoods. HST will make contractors, politicians, trade unions & government officials rich. Agricultural land will be wasted and thousands of trees will have to chopped down. Any new transport system which focuses on Green Design needs to have the quality of encouraging cars owners to give up their addiction to personal cars and this is possible only when the transport system replicates the Network or Sprawl of the roads and also when the system has the design capability to provide individual transport without dependence on time table or schedules or routes. Any new transport system must guarantee the same autonomy which the personal car gives - personal mobility. A paradigm shift in thinking and a quantum leap in technology is needed to make a safe, green and cost effective personal mobility system available. In this connection a new technology is being developed which addresses all the problems of modern day transport especially safety and prevention of accidents. With this new technology the entire 880 mile project can be completed in 5 years instead of 20 years, $10billion instead of $68Billion, with offline stops at every quarter mile instead of 200 miles (giving everyone the opportunity to avail the facility and increasing ridership and also economic viability), with 1% energy consumption of the HST, suitable for short distance travel as well as long distance travel (increasing capacity utilisation with revenue addition). With no waste of agricultural land. No need to destroy forest cover. No land acquisition issues.Ofcourse the speed will be less (100/mph). But does speed matter when you have the choice of personal mobility and do not have to depend on the HST time table. The new technology is accident free (China already has had two major accidents in just two years). It enables zero pollution. This technology will be soon be available for commercialisation.