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LaHood trumpets trains on Daily Show

Thursday, December 17, 2009

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Ray LaHood
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Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Dec. 15, and spent much of the time talking about Amtrak and high speed rail.

Stewart asks if the DOT has anything groundbreaking in store, thinking along the lines of a new kind of fuel, a car of the future or hovercraft. Yes, says Secretary LaHood, “because of the President’s vision [...] we’re going to have high-speed passenger rail in America,” to thunderous applause.

While LaHood didn’t reveal much in the way of new information—unless you’re willing to read into his mentioning every part of the country but the Northwest when identifying possible targets for high speed rail funds (sorry Cascades!)—it’s always promising to see a prominent Administration official spreading the word to the general public.

—Sean Jeans-Gail and Malcolm Kenton

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In Florida, The Fourth Time Could Be the Charm

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Reasons to hope for speedy improvements to make rail travel more convenient in the Sunshine State.

Hundreds were in attendance at the Florida Department of Transportation’s rail forum on December 2nd in Orlando, including every manufacturer of railroad vehicles in the world and many other industry professionals. The conference came in advance of the Florida legislature’s historic vote to invest in a new commuter line in the Orlando area and make a down-payment towards Orlando-Tampa-Miami high-speed rail. This is the fourth time that Florida has tried to jumpstart construction of a new system of fast trains, but the momentum seems to have built to a crescendo this go-round.

DOT officials speaking at the forum emphasized that these investments are only a first step. The state is looking eventually to buy new trainsets capable of 220-mph operation, though speeds on the initial line segment (Orlando-Tampa) will be limited to 168 mph. Though the DOT is currently operating under a less-than-desirable framework of running this segment down the median of Interstate 4, precluding downtown-to-downtown service to existing stations between Orlando and Tampa, the final routing will largely be determined by the contractor that makes the best bid.

Beyond the initial start-up, the state plans not to contribute a penny towards the service. The DOT wants future capital funding to come from federal grants, while the private sector covers the operating costs. It remains to be seen whether this scheme will prove viable once work begins.

Here’s hoping that the encouraging news out of the Sunshine State this month will lead to real results. Florida still lags far behind many states that have made serious strides in passenger rail over the past two decades, but its involvement is better late than never. While many aspects of the plan still need to be worked out, rail advocates cannot afford to make the perfect the enemy of the good. If this first phase is successful, we should begin to see incremental progress towards fast, frequent service connecting all the peninsula’s population centers that will begin to chip away at the state’s worsening traffic and suburban sprawl.

—Malcolm Kenton

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Flag Stops: Who’s Gonna Pay For It

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

  • The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Subsidyscope project—which put out an misleading look at Amtrak’s finances a month ago [top story]—last week unveiled a report we can add to the volumes of literature that debunk the myth that U.S. roads “pay for themselves.” Over the past 25 years, they found, the percentage of highway costs funded by means other than user fees (gas taxes and tolls) doubled. They point to two leading factors influencing this trend: the lack of a change in the gas tax since 1993 (combined with inflation) and the increased reliance on bonds to pay for new highways. Sadly, I doubt this report will gain as much media attention as its predecessor.
  • Along similar lines, the Texas DOT posits that, in order to pay the full cost of a 15-mile stretch of Interstate highway ($1 billion), the statewide gas tax would have to be $2.22 per gallon—not including the price of the gas itself. Yet that highway was built and is being maintained, with general US and Texas taxpayers paying the lion’s share. That same $1 billion could have paid for the construction of 333 miles of railroad track, according to California estimates.
  • Another example of the consequences of chronic underinvestment: The New York Post learns that a number of Amtrak-owned bridges in New York City are “in crumbling condition,” scoring “poor” or worse in internal inspections. Ironically, an effort to fix recent, delay-causing problems with the swing bridge carrying Amtrak’s Empire Corridor trains over the Harlem River wound up closing the bridge from Tuesday night until about 1:00 pm on the day before Thanksgiving. The Wednesday morning trains to Montreal and Toronto were combined and detoured via the Hell Gate Bridge, while passengers on the other trains had to use Metro-North’s Grand Central service for part of their journeys.
  • Fortune magazine documents recent high-speed rail advancements on the other side of the Atlantic, including the extension of TGV service from Paris to Strasbourg—and how trains are beating airlines on certain segments.
  • Office buildings in the Washington, DC area are sitting largely empty—except in the city center. In a region with the second-worst traffic congestion in the nation, employers are locating in areas more easily reached by transit. Downtown Washington’s offices are 10% vacant, while fringe area workspaces are around 30% empty.
  • “We are on the verge of jumpstarting ... [a] game-changing endeavor,” Secretary LaHood remarked, referring to the Recovery Act grant announcements coming within the next few months. LaHood is also throwing his weight behind making subway and light-rail safety a responsibility of his Department.
  • Two more newspaper columnists join the call for a passenger rail renaissance: the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Tom Belden, American Reporter correspondent Rudolph Holhut.
  • LCL: More high-speed rail rumblings from the Middle East. * * * Political leaders want to spend more money on transportation infrastructure—but there’s none to spend. * * * The Midwest High Speed Rail Association gets good vibes from Thanksgiving travel numbers, including a 6.7% decrease in the number of air travelers.

    • —Malcolm Kenton

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