I heard a lot of good chatter about the new BoltBus from Baltimore to New York City. The Greyhound subsidiary offers very inexpensive rides from Baltimore’s Penn Station to New York’s Penn station, ones clearly less than the cost of paying the tolls along the way. The tiered ticketing system offers the first seats for $4 and climbs to about $20 per seat. You’d be hard pressed to spend that little on gas alone.

Plus there are other niceties: free Wi-Fi, leather seats and friendly employees.

This is not a completely novel idea. Bus service is very old and for a while there’s been inexpensive service to NYC complete with free movies aboard from companies like Superior Tours. What’s new is the frequency of the bus and the many options to travel.

So when I tried it out for myself recently, I was impressed with the simple, and cheap public transportation to the Big Apple.

Then it hit me en route: While it’s nice that we have such low cost options for public transportation, as opposed to the train costing more than $100 one way, it’s pretty sad that we really don’t have any new and fast ways to get from the nation’s capital to the nation’s economic center quickly and efficiently.

The bus arrived early, but BoltBus tells you to allow three and one-half to four hours. That means it takes almost five hours from D.C. How can the most powerful nation on earth still not have efficient public transportation between two of the most important points in the world?

While I enjoyed our free (and slow) Internet), in Asia and much of Europe riders enjoy that same amenity aboard much faster and more comfortable trains.

Meanwhile, Americans, Israelis and so many others continue to die from oil-funded terrorists. Asian countries are investing huge sums in efficient infrastructure – catching up with Europeans. Meanwhile, our politicians still can’t get the will together to get me to New York with late 20th century technology.

With sluggish progress like that, how long do you think America will be the lone Super Power?