High Speed Rail In Action

New York's dynastic governor, Andy Cuomo, thinks government-run high speed trains are just the ticket to transform Upstate's moribund economy.

"High-speed rail could be the 21st Century Erie Canal for New York State," with bullet trains zipping from New York City to Buffalo, Toronto and Montreal in the future, Cuomo said.

Andy better hope global warming is real.  In the frigid Ukraine, Andy's like-minded colleagues have been embarrassed by repeated breakdowns of costly high speed trains during this winter's record cold  temperatures.

Eight fancy and modern South Korean-made high-speed Hyundai Rotem trains, purchased for $30 million apiece this year, are turning out to be lemons, some passengers say, with frequent breakdowns amid one of the coldest Decembers in many years.

Passengers have complained of frequent stoppages along routes from Kyiv to Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Donetsk. Apart from delays, passengers have also complained that heat on trains has malfunctioned. And travelers who bought Hyundai train tickets for the Kyiv-Lviv route, have been given old Soviet trains instead.

Check out the video, and be sure to watch it to the end.  Our Rusian translator, Ludmilla Idetsneg, tells us the voices you'll hear are Russian railway workers, having a laugh at their commissar's expense.