Are trains still a symbol of progress?

 Why Liberals Love Trains - Newsweek

In this recent editorial George Will argues that high speed trains are a symbol of what is wrong with Progressive politics today. I'm fascinated that a mode of transportation that once symbolized the possibilities of westward expansion and increased personal mobility, albeit at a cost, now is offered as a symbol of government placing undue restrictions on personal choice. 

Isn't it possible that having more public transit would give more people more choices and more opportunities, for example to get from their homes to their employment?  All those years of graduate school when I did not have a car and the weather or the distance inhibited walking or biking, public transportation got me to church, to my volunteer site, to my job, to the grocery store, to the movies, even once or twice all the way to Fergus Falls.