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Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The latest news and views round-up.
The office of Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) has obtained a preliminary draft of Amtrak’s Congressionally-mandated study [PDF] of the possibility of restoring the Pioneer between Salt Lake City and Seattle. It presents a very conservative ridership estimate—even lower than actual ridership was when the train last ran in 1992—and says the new equipment and track upgrades required would take at least four years once the company gets the go-ahead from Congress.
A land developer from Maine went to Ohio to spread the word about the wonders that new passenger trains can work for local economies. He touted the fact that every dollar his home state put in to initiating and operating the Downeaster has brought about $70 in additional construction investment, creating 18,000 new jobs. He thinks Ohio’s 3-C corridor could do the same.
A Washington Post review of Green Metropolis by David Owen, which has just been added to the NARP Bookstore on Amazon.com, emphasizes Owen’s strongest point about the consequences of overreliance on the automobile: “The real problem with cars is not that they don’t get enough miles to the gallon, it’s that they make it too easy for people to spread out, encouraging forms of development that are inherently wasteful and damaging.” This is something NARP has been pointing out for years, even when doing so puts us in the minority of green-minded groups.
Phoenix’s 9-month-old light rail line is converting skeptics—and bucking the national trend—by carrying almost 7,000 more daily riders than projected, the vast majority being leisure riders, reports the New York Times. In most cities, 60 percent or more of transit users are commuters, but only 29% of Phoenix light rail riders take it to work and back. It goes to show how well transit can work, even in a metropolis that is practically the epitome of sprawl.
A Philadelphia Inquirer article paints a not-so-pretty picture of the condition of Amtrak-owned infrastructure, which the company revealed only after government watchdogs threatened to file suit. Several bridges on the Northeast and Keystone corridors have been rated “poor” by Amtrak’s own inspectors, showing such overt signs of decay as corroded beams, holes, and trees growing through cracks. The these pieces of the physical plant remain neglected, the more it’s going to cost, in terms of safety as well as dollars.
Amtrak adds a new city to its list of destinations this week with the reopening of Icicle Station in Leavenworth, Washington, which will be served daily by the Empire Builder’s Seattle section.
LCL: A preprogrammed “Balanced Transportation Analyzer” (Excel file) gives you the chance to play policymaker and come up with a plan to ease congestion in the Big Apple. * * * Thomas Friedman says US lawmakers don’t have the guts to raise the gas tax. * * * A video high-speed rail wish from a future rail advocacy leader. * * * A slight setback for Tar Heel travelers: a new Raleigh-Charlotte train will come, but not until early next year. * * * There’s one industrialized country the United States appears to be a few steps ahead of on high-speed rail: our neighbor to the north.
—Malcolm Kenton
Friday, September 11, 2009
Our take on recent news and views in transportation.
As Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff reveals, Recovery Act transit funds have gone not just to track and vehicle repairs, but to new transit stations and hubs, as well as greener repair facilities. Meanwhile, the stimulus’s transit accounts are spending out faster than funds for supposedly more shovel-ready highway projects. Also, the Wall Street Journal recaps the latest in the race between states, contractors, and Amtrak to win high-speed rail funds.
Future demand for new housing won’t come from people moving from the suburbs to city and town centers, says Ryan Avent, but from the projected 57 million new housing units that will need to be built in the next 30 years for Americans yet to be born. What kind of developments might accommodate them, benefitting from improved intercity rail connections? One example is taking shape in Kansas City.
Yonah Freemark makes the case that price is key to attracting riders to trains in competitive short-distance markets. His number-crunching reveals that Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor trains cost more per mile traveled than high-speed lines in other countries, but are comparable in price on a per-hour-traveled basis. If trains can hold more people and go faster, he contends, tickets will be inexpensive. Getting to the point where speed and equipment capacity on the Northeast Corridor, not to mention other routes in the country, would be great enough to allow for substantial fare reductions will require significant up-front investment. Meanwhile, rising prices for driving and flying will continue to enhance passenger trains’ attractiveness.
A Missouri task force has recommended ways to transform the state’s auto manufacturing sector for the new economy, among them retooling plants for making “high-speed rail cars,” taking a page from Michigan’s Governor. It remains to be seen whether such advice will be translated into real fiscal incentives to produce such a shift. If so, we can hope to see more stories like this in the coming years.
Streetsblog takes stock of the political landscape as the deadlock over the next surface transportation bill continues while the clock ticks towards the current bill’s September 30th expiration date.
LCL: Residents of central Florida have coalesced to push for new high-speed rail line down the median of I-4 from Tampa to Orlando. *** Western state transportation planners organize to expand high-speed rail east from California into the Rockies. *** PBS’s Blueprint America series offers an engaging primer on the state of freight and a look at the realities on the ground that drive current policy debates. *** The challenges of moving rail freight through choked Houston. *** A Louisiana TV station’s op-ed puts the politically-motivated folly of dropping plans for New Orleans-Baton Rouge high-speed rail into a historical context. *** The Grand Canyon Railway sets a green example.
—Malcolm Kenton
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