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Flag Stops: Revisiting Old Assumptions
Friday, August 27, 2010
- As the Recovery Act-funded Milwaukee-Madison high-speed (110-mph) rail line (currently undergoing environmental review) becomes a contentious issue in the Wisconsin governor’s race, our friends at the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition and the Empire Builder Coalition show the arguments of the train opponents to be “based upon incorrect data and misplaced assumptions.” For example, Republican candidate Scott Walker’s claim that “nobody really knows how much [HSR] will cost” completely overlooks the reams of documentation that the project’s sponsors have made public. Walker also chooses not to consider the economic benefits that the trains are sure to provide once they’re running, only the relatively small amount of engineering and construction jobs the project creates directly. Former Republican elected officials are also weighing in favoring the trains.
- The Nashville Tennessean, a daily newspaper whose editorials have been critical of passenger train investment in the past, came out with one defending the newly-proposed high-speed service between Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta. The editors wisely caution against passing conclusive judgments on a project that is still in the early planning stages, point to the success of new Amtrak services elsewhere at wooing new riders, and frame the issue as a matter of staying competitive with other states and countries. Let’s hope this more enlightened attitude persists.
- Mobilizing the Region provides good insight into the changing mindset of the “rails-to-trails” movement, which has always had an uneasy alliance with passenger train advocates over the tension between maintaining rail-trails as such and returning them to railroad use. It is encouraging that many rail-trail advocates see trails as part of the transportation network that can coexist side-by-side with active rail lines that will likely host more trains over time. Green-space preservationists should be natural allies of rail advocates in pursuit of a higher quality of life.
- Investigative reporter Bruce Selcraig has a worth-reading examination of the current state of American passenger rail in the respected Miller-McCune Magazine. Selcraig compares Amtrak to the frequent, reliable service that the people of Spain take for granted, even if they don’t live in a major urban area. His conclusion: “Overall, high-speed rail is far more cost effective than its opponents claim. And high-speed rail could become a significant part of America’s transportation mix with far less investment than has been poured into highways and airports.” While he gives somewhat short shrift to the value of incrementally improving existing train service as opposed to going all-out for a “man on the moon” project, Selcraig reiterates, “Perhaps passenger rail will have to be subsidized by the government, not unlike our Social Security, NASA, thousands of libraries and fire departments and all our roads and airports.”
- LCL: Federal Transit Administrator Rogoff helps break ground for a new intermodal train station in Rhode Island that will become the southern terminus of MBTA’s Providence Line commuter trains from Boston. * * * The OneRail Coalition’s latest blog posts highlight jobs being created in the railroad industry. * * * Transit doesn’t just enhance livability in urban and suburban areas. * * * The Transport Politic has a useful map of applications for the next round of federal high-speed rail funding ($2.3 billion). * * * President Eisenhower makes a post-mortem pitch for high-speed rail.
—Malcolm Kenton
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: 2010 elections, amtrak, atlanta, bruce selcraig, chattanooga, editorial, empire builder coalition, high-speed rail, nashville tennessean, rail coalition, rails-to-trails, scott walker, wisconsin, wisconsin governor,Train Investment IS a Deficit Reduction Measure
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Many articles in the press are playing up the opposition of some politicians to spending scarce state funds, or adding to the national debt, to improving passenger train service. Most recently, a New York Times piece cites opposition from some gubernatorial candidates in Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and California. However, if polls showing broad public support for passenger trains reflects the attitude of the electorate, running on an anti-rail platform may not be wise. Yes, the price tag for high(er)-speed rail projects is high, but the price of maintaining the status quo—lost productivity from ever-increasing road and air congestion, escalating health costs from air pollution, and the opportunity cost of forgoing the economic development that modern train service would generate—is much higher.
As economic policy expert Ezra Klein writes in the Washington Post, “[d]elaying a dollar of needed infrastructure repairs is no different than racking up a dollar of debt.” Now is the best time to build major pieces of infrastructure like better railroads and train equipment because construction costs and interest rates are historically low and so many people are in desparate need of a job. The economic output generated through building out needed infrastructure—both direct and indirect—will result in increased tax revenue, leaving us better able to pay down whatever additional debt we incur.
If we use our fiscal deficit as an excuse to continue to ignore our infrastructure deficit, our children and grandchildren—putting up with a lower quality of life than we now enjoy—will look back and ask “What were they thinking?” We already have the vision and the means to build out our rail network so that almost every American community is served by fast, frequent, reliable trains. We just need the political will, and that’s where each of us citizens comes in. Make sure your elected officials and candidates know that investing in this infrasturcture now will pay much greater political dividends than continued inaction.
Side Track
- A Vancouver Sun editorial details just how misguided Canada Border Service is in its insistence that Washington State pay additional hundreds of thousands (more than $20 per passenger per day) in order to keep the popular second Portland-Vancouver Cascades frequency running across the border. The train’s economic benefit to British Columbia far exceeds this cost, and Canada does not charge US authorities for border inspections at road crossings, which far outnumber the 3 existing passenger train crossings. If you live in Canada, please contact Prime Minister Harper and your Member of Parliament and ask them to waive this charge.
—Malcolm Kenton
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: 2010 elections, 2010 governor races, budget shortfall, california, deficit, ezra klein, florida, infrastructure investment, national debt, new york times, ohio, states, wisconsin,Transit Investment a Victim of General Loathing of Public Spending
Friday, October 08, 2010
Ironically, perhaps the greatest challenge facing passenger train development is anger at the huge government investments that bailed out such companies as GM, Chrysler, AIG, Citigroup and Bank of America and arguably saved the American financial system from collapse.
There is anger at banks—and frustration that “bank reform” has been received so warmly by the banks themselves. Indeed, columnist Francesco Guerrera wrote that, for Goldman Sachs, which is “desperately trying to prove that it puts customers first, the government-sanctioned elimination of a key activity not involving clients [proprietary trading] must feel heaven-sent.”
Since the government has yet to sell its positions in the car companies and AIG, and early indications are the prices will be closer to the low end of projections, it seems clear only that the ultimate loss will be far less than the $700 billion “TARP” investment.
Nonetheless, “populist” anger at all this government spending ignores the danger of cutting government spending while unemployment remains high. This anger could yet produce a new Congress that will turn against all manner of government spending including the Obama Administration’s high speed rail initiative.
That initiative has its own problems due to ongoing failure of federal officials and the major railroads to reach the agreements needed to let the bulk of the “incremental investment” part of the $8 billion flow, but Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo last week predicted that agreements for all of those funds would be in place before January.
George Soros, in an Oct. 5 FT column excerpted from a forthcoming New York Review of Books article, wrote: “Americans are convinced that government is incapable of managing investments aimed at improving the country’s physical and human capital…The simple truth is that the private sector does not employ available resources…[For now], investment and employment require fiscal stimulus” [government spending]...”
Soros disagrees with the Obama Administration’s “stated goal of halving the budet deficit by 2013 while the economy is operating far below capacity…Investing in infrastructure and education makes more sense…What stands in the way is not economics but misconceptions about budge deficits that are exploited for partisan and ideological purposes.”
—Ross Capon
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: 2010 elections, bank bailouts, deficit, financial reform, francesco guerrera, george soros, infrastructure, joseph szabo, passenger trains, public investment, transit, us politics,What Tuesday’s Results May Mean for Trains
Thursday, November 04, 2010
The results of Tuesday’s elections for US Congress and state governorships may considerably alter the prospects for progress on many passenger train improvements. Though some may be tempted to write off the entire election as a loss for our cause, there are many results worth celebrating.
For one thing, many newly-elected members of Congress, particularly those with limited political experience, may not have spent much time learning about transportation issues. As soon as these new Senators and Representatives begin hiring their staffs, we will introduce ourselves to their transportation aides and, as we always have, continuously provide them with the background information they need to make informed decisions.
We will keep making the case that supporting expanded train service and putting trains on a more equal footing with highways and aviation is as much about Americans’ freedom of choice in travel as it is about our energy security, job creation, and creating desirable communities to live in. We will continue to demonstrate that the economic and social benefits of modern, reliable, frequent train service are far greater than the costs of improving service.
Key House Committees
Rep. John Mica (R-FL) likely will chair the Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee. He has spoken strongly in favor of high-speed rail, particularly in the Northeast Corridor, but his views on conventional intercity rail are less clear and he has been a harsh critic of Amtrak and of many of the federal high-speed grants issued to date. Also, funding prospects for all transportation are unclear, given the new Republican majority’s commitment to no tax increases (and their consideration of the federal gasoline tax as a tax rather than a user charge). He has called a gasoline tax increase “dead” and has talked about leveraging more private funding. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA) likely will chair the railroads subcommittee.
T&I Chairman James Oberstar (D-MN) lost his re-election bid, so the top Democrat on the committee next year likely will be either Nick Rahall (WV), Peter DeFazio (OR) or Jerry Costello (IL).
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: 2010 elections, ballot measures, congress, house committees, midterm elections, passenger trains, transit,©2010 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
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