Riding the Rails: London to Brussels

July 16, 2011 -- From London's St. Pancras Railway Station I took a Eurostar high speed train to my next stop -- Brussels, Belgium.

The Eurostar train zips you to Brussels in a little under two hours and travels at speeds up to 186 miles per hour (300 kilometers per hour). It was my first time riding a high speed train and it was an amazing experience. You literally feel as if you are flying on the ground. But while the speed is incredibly fast, the ride is also surprisingly smooth. The highlight for me was traveling through the English Channel Tunnel, otherwise called the Chunnel. It takes about 20 minutes to travel the 31.4 miles (50.5 kilometers) from Folkestone, Kent, United Kingdom to Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France. It is thrilling being 250 feet (75 meters) under sea level on a high-speed train roaring ahead at nearly 200 mph.

Eurostar makes stops at Ebbsfleet and Ashford in southern England; and Calais and Lille in northern France, before arriving at Brussels South Railway Station.

Here is video riding the rails from London to Brussels:



Here are photos of the rail trip from London to Brussels. Click here to see the Flickr set.

Infrastructure Bank Would Boost Economy

Yes, the latest jobs report made for a depressing day here in the United States of America. But are there solutions to our economic and employment problems? One potential answer is the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank that would fix our crumbling roads and bridges; make it easier and faster to build a high speed rail network; and start to make a dent in getting Americans back to work.

MSNBC.com is reporting that the BUILD Act is gaining traction in Congress. It has bipartisan support amongst many Democrats and Republicans, and also has the backing of two groups usually on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum -- the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO.

The dismal economic and jobs news is only one compelling reason to move forward with a dedicated source of funding for these projects.

The American Society of Civil Engineers has given American infrastructure a D grade and has said we need to spend $2 trillion over the next five years to fix our infrastructure.

And China is investing massive amounts of money into high speed rail and other major infrastructure projects. A little over a week ago the first bullet trains on the Shanghai-Beijing rail line started running. China is also committing huge amounts of money into research and development to eventually get high speed trains across the country to reach speeds of up to 300 miles per hour.

Where is America's competitive fire? Do we want to get left in the dust by Chinese high speed rail?

If you care about the future of the United States of America as much as I do, then please call your Representative and Senators and tell them how important a National Infrastructure Bank is to fixing the economy and creating jobs and demand they support the BUILD Act.