If we instituted a carbon tax, would high-speed rail simply appear, displacing the airline industry, as it becomes financially desirable to solve rail's political problems? The underlying assumption is that high-speed trains are considerably more fuel efficient than airplanes. High-speed trains also can use electricity from non-carbon sources.
The assumption that high speed trains are more fuel efficient might be false due to air resistance: air is denser near the surface of the earth. Trains could be made to run in evacuated tubes.
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