If you're a fan of high-speed rail, which in this country pretty much limits you to the Northeast corridor between New York and Washington, then you'll want to listen up to the latest from Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama.

Traffic gridlock along Interstate 70 in Colorado's mountains, exacerbated by heavy snow this past winter and spring (including 18 inches Thursday and Friday), has rekindled the concept of mountain mass transit in the form of some kind of high- or even lower-speed train between Denver and Grand Junction. Drivers tired of a two-hour trips between most major mountain resorts and the Denver metro area turning into six-hour odysseys due to frequent semi-tractor trailer jackknifes and ensuring pass closures (Vail Pass shut down more than 20 times this winter), may find themselves boarding the Obama Express.

According to Time's "The Page - Politics up to the Minute" blog by Mark Halperin, Barack and Michelle Obama, campaigning ahead of the Indiana primary, visited the suburban Indianapolis home of Mike and Cheryl Fischer in Beech Grove. Mike Fischer, an Amtrak machinist, is facing a lay-off or possible move to another city to keep his job.

The blog reported Obama enthusiastically launched into the following endorsement of high-speed rail. "The irony is with the gas prices what they are, we should be expanding rail service. One of the things I have been talking about for awhile is high-speed rail connecting all of these Midwest cities - Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis," Obama said.

"They are not that far away from each other. Because of how big of a hassle airlines are now. There are a lot of people if they had the choice, it takes you just about as much time if you had high-speed rail to go the airport, park, take your shoes off."

The Page reported Obama kept talking up Amtrak: "This is something that we should be talking about a lot more," Obama said.