Dallas council’s high-speed rail Tokyo trip is no junket

Mark Twain said it best upon his departure from Brooklyn in winter of 1867 for an excursion “to the Holy Land, Egypt, The Crimea, Greece, and Intermediate Points of Interest.”

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime,” he wrote.

We don’t think members of our Dallas City Council need the level of curing Twain prescribed in The Innocents Abroad, but who doubts his sentiment that travel can be illuminating and edifying?

And who doubts further that, when it comes to matters of advanced high-speed rail, North Texans are innocents indeed?

Given that, you can count us out of the chorus of folks currently criticizing four council members, along with two assistant city managers and three other city employees, for taking a few days to travel to Tokyo to experience the integration of high-speed rail into Japan.

Texas appears to be getting closer to realizing a high-speed rail line between Dallas and Houston. We believe this plan would greatly benefit our state, adding an important connection between two centers of commerce.

An agreement between Amtrak and Texas Central to construct the line has advanced to a stage where it is eligible for major federal funding.

We are still a long way from dirt turning, but this is the most viable high-speed rail project going in the United States.

Given that, it’s reasonable to spend funds from the city’s Convention and Event Services budget to fund this travel, assuming the cost is in line with reasonable expenses for such a trip. The money for the trip isn’t coming from local taxpayers but from funds collected through the Hotel Occupancy Tax. Those funds can’t be reallocated to cover other city expenses.

The four council members on the seven-day trip that ended Tuesday are Adam Balzadua, Omar Narvaez, Jesse Moreno and Gay Donnell Willis. They will owe the rest of the council, and the public at large, a comprehensive account of what they learned and how it can be applied in Dallas. We have every expectation they will provide that.

No one doubts that there is wasted spending in local government. But it’s too easy to decry every government trip as a junket.

We know Dallas isn’t Tokyo. But closing our eyes to what another culture can teach us through years of experience seems foolhardy.

High-speed rail will enrich Dallas, Houston and, by extension, our whole state. Isn’t it worth a small investment if our elected officials learn a little something about how to get it right?

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