NARP Blog

Thursday, December 17, 2009

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

Thursday, January 28, 2010

In a report broadcast today, CNBC’s Brian Shactman gave a brief overview of President Obama’s intercity and high speed rail program. While briefly acknowledging the national scope of the effort, Shactman was quick to focus on the three states that will receive the lion’s share of the money—California, Florida, and Illinois.

This focus is perhaps inevitable, and I think it shows the wisdom in the Administration’s choice to spread the $8 billion around the country instead of throwing it all into one or two corridors. $8 billion is not nearly enough money to build even a single high speed rail line—and the spokesman for the California High Speed Rail Authority admits that their line won’t see significant construction until 2012. An incremental ramp-up to high and higher speed passenger trains will allow people (and media sources) around the country to see new jobs, steady decreases in trip times, and steady improvements in on time performance. And this will give transportation officials something to point to when preparing requests for the second round of funding.

The fact that the CNBC anchor introduces the piece by asking “is [high speed rail] a magic economic bullet?” tells a lot about the kind of yardstick the media are using to judge this program. But it is important for rail and transit advocates to keep this in mind, because these are the people who will be telling the general public whether these projects are successes or failures—and CNBC anchor Erin Burnett’s alluded-to labeling of the program as “rail to nowhere” gives a sense how eager some commentators are to write American passenger trains off.

See the video below.

-Sean Jeans-Gail
Communications Director
NARP

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NARP blog

LaHood trumpets trains on Daily Show

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Posted by NARP

CNBC Looks at New Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Posted by NARP

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