subsidies

Sometimes there are advantages to living in one of the places most recently settled by Europeans — the relative dearth of historical sites gives us much more flexibility in determining where we lay out our transportation infrastructure.

Consider the plight of a new rail tunnel being built to complete the AVE connection between Barcelona and Madrid.

The chief architect working on the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona yesterday condemned a plan to build a bullet-train tunnel less than two metres from Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece.

Backed by local civic groups, the advisers to Unesco in Spain, and architects and engineers from 50 universities around the world, Jordi Bonet i Armengol, who has worked on Gaudi’s daring cathedral for 40 years, said yesterday: “I am astounded by this brutality. This is an attack on culture of the highest order, something one would only expect of a third-world country.”

I find it fascinating that in the U.S. we worry most about gentrification and some oak trees, while in Europe there’s the added complexity of preserving 80,000 years of human history. And yet, in spite of those challenges, Europe has superior public transporation infrastructure.