Deficit? What deficit? That seems to be President Obama’s thinking when it comes to spending. In the face of a record federal deficit he is pushing a proposal to spend $53 billion on high-speed rail. Governor O’Malley is one of his biggest cheerleaders. It would be difficult to find a more wasteful way to spend this $53 billion.

Let’s consider some facts about high-speed rail, as noted by rail expert Randal O’Toole:

Amtrak brags that its high-speed Acela between Boston and Washington covers its operating costs, though not its capital costs. It does so, however, only by collecting fares of about 75 cents per passenger mile. By comparison, airline fares average only 13 cents a passenger mile, and intercity buses (which, Amtrak doesn't want you to know, carry about three times as many passengers between Boston and Washington as the Acela) are even less expensive.

Since most high-speed rail stations will be in downtowns, the main users will be downtown workers such as lawyers, bankers, and government officials. Yet less than 8% of American jobs are in central city downtowns, meaning all Americans will subsidize trains used by only a small urban elite….

High-speed trains in Europe and Asia may be a boon to American tourists, but they haven't proved transformational in those regions either. France and Japan have the world's most extensive high-speed rail networks, yet their average residents ride the high-speed trains less than 400 miles a year.

For those of us in the Mid-Atlantic region, O’Toole points out:

As of this writing, $99 will get you from Washington to New York in two hours and fifty minutes on Amtrak's high-speed train, while $49 pays for a moderate-speed train ride that takes three hours and fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, relatively unsubsidized and energy-efficient buses cost $20 for a four-hour-and-fifteen-minute trip with leather seats and free Wi-Fi. Airfares start at $119 for a one-hour flight.

When I lived in DC, I took the Amtrak between DC and New York and DC and Wilmington, DE, quite often. I like trains. But I’m not letting my enjoyment of train travel get in the way of the fact that train travel is inefficient for most Americans and must be subsidized heavily to stay in business.

Wasting money on high-speed rail will do nothing to help solve our nation’s transportation woes. In fact, by diverting money away from repairing and expanding roads, subsidizing rail travel is actually making our transportation problems worse.