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Which comes first: a great transit system or a great city that can support it? What role does high-speed rail play in an overall, effective transportation system? And is an incremental approach really possible with high-speed transit?\nThese are important questions with potentially complex answers. For insight we turned to Rick Harnish. He\u2019s executive director of the High Speed Rail Alliance, the nation\u2019s largest high-speed rail advocacy organization. The organization\u2019s goal is to make high-speed trains \u201cfast, frequent, and affordable.\u201d Harnish cofounded the Alliance in 1993 (he\u2019s also a Strong Towns member), and we\u2019re pleased to welcome him as our guest this week on the Strong Towns Podcast. \nIn this episode, Harnish and Strong Towns president Chuck Marohn talk about how much of the transit that gets built is based on what places need versus what they can get funding for. They discuss the problem of thinking about transit as a \u201ccharitable overlay\u201d to an auto-oriented system, and whether we can afford to fund high-speed transit while also funding new car infrastructure. They also talk about what the U.S and Canada should\u2014and shouldn\u2019t\u2014learn about high-speed rail from countries like France, Japan, and China.\nAdditional Show Notes\n\nHigh Speed Rail Alliance\n\n\nHigh Speed Rail Alliance (Twitter)\n\n\nCharles Marohn (Twitter)\n\n\nConfessions of an Engineer\n\n\nCheck out more Strong Towns content on public transit in the Action Lab