Cuomo: New York Will Take Their HSR Funds, Thank You

A few newly elected GOP governors ran against high speed rail . . . and have pledged to eschew hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal HSR funding.

Governor-elect Cuomo has an idea about where those funds should go.

Who knew that electing cretins in other states might be a boon to NY's rail infrastructure?

Northeast Corridor Commission

I've been banging the drum for better regional rail planning for years.  This is the sort of talk that gets me excited:

Today, the Obama Administration is working to achieve a vision of similar scope and scale. As with the interstate highways during the 1950s, we haven’t yet drawn all the lines on the map. But we are on track to creating a modern, high-speed rail system that will support sustained economic growth.


President Obama and I welcome the ambition of Amtrak's thinking, and we hope to see it spread across the nation as Americans recognize and demand the benefits of high-speed rail.



Because this train will not be stopped. And I promise you: In less time than it took to plan and pave our vast system of inter-connected highways, you will see high-speed trains carry significant numbers of Americans within and between regions.

Amtrak's Ambitious Plan for Northeast Corridor

I don't have much to add to what Yonah Freemark has written at The Transport Politic on Amtrak's proposal for true high speed rail on the Northeast Corridor, except that if it were up to me, the Obama administration would be pushing hard for a major infrastructure stimulus package.

As I've written in the past, the stimulus the administration has sought so far was at least a trillion short of what the country needs . . . and needs directed into infrastructure projects.  This proposal shouldn't be a 30-year plan . . . it should be a ten year plan and it deserves massive federal funding.

Obama To Detail High Speed Rail plans This Week

Via Atrios, ABC News reports:

This week, Obama will unveil his vision for high-speed rail in the United States after unexpectedly adding $8 billion to the economic stimulus package for high-speed train travel -- the biggest commitment of its kind ever made by the federal government.

America is miles behind. In Japan, the bullet train can wisk passengers from one city to the next at nearly 200 miles an hour. It's the same on France's TGV train, where passengers can get from Paris to Lyon in a little less than two hours. A dozen countries around the world enjoy high-speed rail, but America is not one of them.

I'm excited about the prospects. Anyone who's used high speed rail in Europe or Asia can attest, it would be a tremendous boon to short and medium haul intercity travel. Clearly you're not going to hop a supertrain for a regular bicoastal commute, but by stringing together regional high-speed networks we could significantly reduce air and auto traffic and improve air quality . . . while making these trips more pleasant.

National High Speed Rail: New Site

Via Streetsblog, there are some great new posts up at The Transport Politic for those who fantasize about an adequately funded, well designed high speed rail network in North America. Check out them out here and here.

By national of course, we're really talking more about a series of connecting regional systems. The possibilities are really incredible if we make this a priority. A great way to reduce our reliance on imported oil, as well as free up capacity at airports for those flights that are not practical even with high speed rail (coast to coast, most international).

More on this later. And while we're flogging Transport Politic's posts, Senator Schumer has expanded on Congressman Nadler's efforts to increase transit funding in the stimulus package. Still only crumbs, but gradually improving.

Obama: Invest In Rail Infrastructure

It's been so long, I almost forgot what leadership looked like. This is change we can believe in:

We can invest in rail, so that cities like Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis are connected by high-speed trains, and folks have alternatives to air travel.

Barack Obama, via Matthew Yglesias via Streetsblog via my Blackberry.

Long time readers know that high speed intercity rail is one of my dreams for this country. If you've ever ridden the TGV in France, you know what we're missing. I hear the new AVE in Spain is even nicer.

High Gas Prices "Driving" More People To Transit

The New York Times has an excellent front page article on this phenomenon today.

Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.

Now, if only we had used tax policy to do this 30 years ago, instead of funneling countless billions in extra dollars to the oil companies, various despots, and speculators then we'd have a transit system the world would envy. The Federal gas tax needs to be increased, and the funds must be dedicated to building a world class transit infrastructure. We are decades behind Europe and Japan in our high speed rail infrastructure. It's time to show some leadership again.

UPDATE: Second Avenue Sagas goes a little more in-depth on this issue.

We Need High Speed Rail

Via Atrios, the AP has an article on the resurgence of interest in high speed rail:

While sleek new passenger trains streak through Europe, Japan and other corners of the world at speeds nearing 200 mph, most U.S. passenger trains chug along at little more than highway speeds — slowed by a half-century of federal preference for spending on roads and airports.
snip

The six-year-old Acela Express is the only U.S. rail line that tops the 125 mph considered "high speed" by international standards. And even supporters concede it barely qualifies, hitting its maximum 150 mph for less than 20 miles from Boston to Washington, D.C., and averaging just 86 mph over the full 456-mile run.

Even so, Acela's ridership rose 20 percent in May as gasoline prices topped $3 a gallon nationwide, said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole. Nationally, Amtrak is poised for its fifth straight year of ridership gains this year, said Marc Magliari, a spokesman for the railroad.

snip

John Spychalski, a transportation expert and professor at Penn State University, says high-speed rail will continue to languish unless lawmakers provide the same financial backing as highways and air travel. He said some could be swayed if high-profile projects such as California's succeed.

If you want to get depressed, just imagine for a moment that after 9-11, instead of attacking Iraq, we had invested $600 billion not in bombing another country, but in rebuilding our own infrastructure with a nationwide system of intercity high speed rail. Talk about a true investment in national security.

What's done is done, but it's never too late to see some actual leadership. Instead of running around throwing money at BS "alternatives" like clean coal and ethanol, let's bring our investment in high speed rail up to par or better with the huge subsidies we give away to the plane and the automobile. Hell, if you must have your clean coal, at least use it to generate the electricity to run high speed rail.

Rail could be superior to air or auto transit on many inter-city routes in the US, and is by far the most energy efficient. No conversation about "energy independence" should gloss over the fact that subsidized travel by plane and by car is the largest cause of our dependence on foreign oil.

Reading this article reminded me of a post I saw on Daily Kos back in march on building a national high speed rail network. This has to be a national priority akin to the Eisenhower Highway System, and once again, national security is a compelling reason for doing so (but far from the only reason). Searching for that post, I stumbled upon this post, which ups the ante by laying out stages for construction and integrates with Canada and Mexico for a North American rail network akin to the one in Europe. The map above comes from that post by seaprog.

Elect a Democratic President and we might actually get this started.