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Connecting the Dots for Sustainable Transportation
Friday, May 22, 2009
Tuesday’s much-anticipated presidential announcement of higher nationwide fuel economy standards for automobiles was nearly universally praised by auto manufacturers, organized labor, environmentalists and consumer groups, and is indeed a step in the right direction. However, the new rules may have unintended negative consequences, particularly for those interested in a future where Americans are less reliant on the car, and these should not be overlooked.
Safe Climate Campaign director Daniel Becker pointed out on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show Wednesday morning that the new standards apply to cars that are actually bought, not just to those that are in showrooms. Therefore, in order to comply with the law, the auto industry must sell more new cars, potentially with help from a provision in the climate bill that would give consumers incentives to trade in their current vehicles. Becker also noted (as does USA Today’s Open Road blog) that the laws of economics generally dictate that when the cost of an activity goes down, people tend to do marginally more of it. Therefore, by making it cheaper to drive on a per-mile basis, a gas-sipping auto fleet may lead to an increase in driving, which, while it may not have the same impact on carbon emissions, would certainly worsen the many other consequences of auto dependence: congestion, sprawl, and parking problems, to name a few. Plus, the new line of fuel-efficient cars may actually be less safe, and when people buy less gas, the key source of revenue for highway maintenance (and some rail and transit services) is further depleted.
Higher gas prices (which will inevitably return) and greater awareness about global warming have led not only to increased demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, but also for more travel alternatives. If public policy were to promote one without simultaneously addressing the other, it would be a step in the opposite direction from one that would lead to an energy-secure and livable future. Luckily, federal leaders have taken steps towards improving the automobile alternatives for which Americans are clamoring, but a guaranteed long-term source of funding for these projects is still missing. Congress will eventually have to either increase the gas tax (a move that is sure to be resisted mightily) or find other sources of funding for our transportation infrastructure.
Continued after the jump.
—Malcolm Kenton
Posted by NARP
Tags: auto industry, climate, congress, highways, obama, transit,V.P. Biden: Amtrak is “powerful and indespensible” vehicle for the future
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Vice President Joe Biden penned the following column for publication in the January/February 2010 issue of Arrive, Amtrak’s on-board magazine geared towards Northeast Corridor travelers. It is reprinted in the Huffington Post.
Why America Needs Trains
One of the Capitol Hill newspapers estimated that I’ve taken more than 7,000 round trips on Amtrak over the course of my career. But the one I made on Jan. 17, 2009 was a bit different. When I got there, there were 8,000 people standing in the freezing cold. And I wasn’t racing to reach the 7:46 a.m. Metroliner (later, the Acela) that I had taken thousands of times before.
I was meeting up with the train that would carry President Obama and me to our inauguration.
That day, Gregg Weaver, a conductor who started riding Amtrak the same year I did—1972—introduced me to the crowd. As Gregg spoke, it struck me that over the years, Amtrak provided me with more than a way to get to Washington to serve the people of Delaware every morning and a way to get home to my family each night. It has provided me another family entirely—a community of dedicated professionals who have shared the milestones in my life, and who have allowed me to share the milestones in theirs.
And it has provided me with one thing more, an understanding of—and a respect for—the role of rail travel in our society and our economy.
Though I don’t get to ride the train nearly as much anymore, those were the lessons I brought with me on that final trip to Washington as a United States Senator.
I began making the 110-mile commute shortly after I was sworn in as a Senator. It was the only way that I could have been a Senator at all. I had to be able to get home to spend evenings with my two sons after we lost their mother and sister in an auto accident a month earlier.
Since then, on those many trips down to Washington, I got into a routine. From Wilmington to Baltimore I’d read the papers and make phone calls. At Baltimore, I’d start preparing for that day’s hearings, amending my opening statement or going through the list of witnesses. And by the time I arrived in D.C., I’d be ready to jump right in.
Getting home was sometimes a sprint, too. One year, on my birthday, my daughter had planned a party for me. She really wanted to give me a gift and blow out candles. Senator Bob Dole was the Majority Leader at the time, and we were voting that night. I told him that I really had to be home for my daughter, which meant that I needed to catch the 5:54 p.m. train. Senator Dole backed up the votes until 9 p.m. I boarded the train and, in Wilmington, my daughter was standing there on the middle platform. She and my wife sang “Happy Birthday,” I blew out the candle, took a piece of cake, opened her gift, gave her a kiss, and caught the 7:23 p.m. going south—and managed to be there for the 9 p.m. vote.
Amtrak doesn’t just carry us from one place to another—it makes things possible that otherwise wouldn’t be. For 36 years, I was able to make most of those birthday parties, to get home to read bedtime stories, to cheer for my children at their soccer games. Simply put, Amtrak gave me—and countless other Americans—more time with my family. That’s worth immeasurably more to me than the fare printed on the ticket.
When I took the train every night—and I still do whenever possible—I always noticed the lights on in the houses flickering in the passing neighborhoods, dotting the landscape speeding by my window. Moms and dads were at their kitchen table, talking after they put their kids to bed. Like Americans everywhere, they were asking questions as profound as they are ordinary: Should Mom move in with us now that Dad is gone? How are we going to pay the heating bills? Did you hear the company may be cutting our health care? Now that we owe more on the house than it’s worth, how are we going to send the kids to college? How are we going be able to retire?
I would look out the window and hear their questions, feel their pain. And every time I made that trip, it would inspire me to get up the next day, head back down to Washington, and give them the answers they’re looking for. Those moments looking out the window and seeing the lights on, they told me things that the briefing folders in front of me never could. They gave color and meaning to the problems I’ve spent my career trying to solve. They reminded me why I made that trip back and forth 7,000 times.
But my support for rail travel goes beyond the emotional connection. With delays at our airports and congestion on our roads becoming increasingly ubiquitous, volatile fuel prices, increased environmental awareness, and a need for transportation links between growing communities, rail travel is more important to America than ever before.
Support for Amtrak must be strong—not because it is a cherished American institution, which it is—but because it is a powerful and indispensable way to carry us all into a leaner, cleaner, greener 21st century.
Consider that if you shut down Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, it is estimated that to compensate for the loss, you’d have to add seven new lanes of highway to Interstate 95. When you consider that it costs an average of $30 million for one linear mile of one lane of highway, you see what a sound investment rail travel is. And that’s before you factor in the environmental benefits of keeping millions and millions of cars off the road.
In 1830, the first steam-engine locomotive, the Tom Thumb, graced America’s railways. Its first run was a rickety 13-mile trek from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills, Md., but it became much more than that. It marked the beginning of a new journey, heading straight into a better, more imaginative American future.
We are on a similar journey now. We are at the dawn of a new age, where the very best ideas of today will shape our tomorrow, where renewable clean energy and new transportation systems and more efficient technology will revolutionize American life the way the Tom Thumb did some 180 years ago.
On Jan. 20, 2009, pulling out of the Wilmington train station, embarking on that same short trip I made thousands of times before, I thought again about the journey America was about to take as a nation. And I saw our future the same way I always did: looking out Amtrak’s windows.
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: acela, amtrak, biden, future, green, obama, passenger, senate, train, vice president,CNBC Looks at New Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants
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
Posted by NARP
Tags: cahsra, high speed rail, media, obama,Near-Term Rail Upgrades are Excellent Job Creators
Monday, February 01, 2010
The Associated Press’s Joan Lowy wrongly downplays the importance of the good American jobs that will be created through the Obama Administration’s investments in higher-speed intercity passenger trains in a Jan. 29 article. “There will be U.S. manufacturing and engineering jobs for slower trains often described as ‘higher speed’ or ‘midspeed,’” she writes, in a tone that suggests that these endeavors are not worthwhile compared to the kind of super high-speed trains that Europe and Asia have. In reality, the Administration’s current strategy is absolutely necessary to reboot domestic railroad manufacturing and engineering industries.
Fifty years ago, while the U.S. let railroads wither while pouring billions into new highways and airports, other industrialized countries did exactly what we are now beginning to do: make important outlays towards expanding and improving their rail networks. This laid the building blocks for their high-speed lines by providing connecting systems that feed passengers to the bullet trains and fostering a culture in which the train is a vital mode of travel.
Admittedly, it will be necessary for the U.S. to gain from other countries’ expertise in the short term, but by awarding contracts to foreign companies now, we will enhance our own knowledge base and quickly become more independent in the rail field.
We cannot simply build brand new high-speed railroads overnight. By gradually strengthening the existing rail network to allow for faster, more frequent passenger (and freight) service, we not only create jobs, but we also enhance the quality of many Americans’ travel experiences.
—Malcolm Kenton
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: ap, domestic, high-speed rail, jean lowy, job creation, jobs, manufacturing, obama, passenger trains, transportation, travel, upgrades,Rail Grants Are Answering People’s Demands
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
The following letter to the editor was published in the Washington Examiner:
Since passenger train improvements have enjoyed bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, we reject your suggestion that White House unveiling of passenger-train Recovery Act grants constitutes turning a deaf ear to the recent Massachusetts election.
Indeed, polls—and Amtrak’s rising ridership—show that Americans want more trains. Put “travelers” atop your list of “those who are quite pleased by the projects.”
The majority of dollars will go to upgrade existing trains, producing tangible service improvements within one or a few years. At the other end of the spectrum, our children may look back and thank those who pushed the California and Florida very-high-speed projects. Very high energy prices threaten the future of short-distance air service.
—Ross Capon
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: amtrak, congress, high-speed rail, obama, public, ridership, trains, upgrades, washington examiner, white house,Deepwater Horizon, Energy, U.S. DOT and Trains
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Quoting again from the June 11 Philip Stephens column in Financial Times, “The reason the Deepwater Horizon rig is there is because the US consumes a quarter of world oil production even though it has only one-twentieth of the population.”
A major reason that the US has such high per capita energy consumption is our high reliance on automobiles and aviation. The world has an average of 107 motorcars per 1,000 inhabitants, but the U.S. has 765 cars per 1,000 people. That compares with 516 in Europe (15 nations), 188 in the Russian Federation, 14 in China and 11 in India.
Simply raising CAFÉ (miles per gallon) standards does not address the “external” energy costs of the automobile—including pedestrian-unfriendly development and widely-spaced buildings which themselves consume energy inefficiently.
In 2007 (the most recent figures available), automobiles averaged 28% more energy consumed per passenger-mile than Amtrak. Domestic airlines averaged 19% more than Amtrak. If the nation had invested adequately in passenger trains, Amtrak’s showing would have been even better.
Secretary LaHood deserves credit for the fact that the draft U.S. DOT Strategic Plan FY 2010-FY2015 [PDF] says most of the right things. Here are some quotes from the Executive Summary, starting with its first sentence: “President Barack Obama supports a transformative U.S. transportation policy that improves public health and safety, fosters livable communities, ensures that transportation assets are maintained in a state of good repair, supports the Nation’s long-term economic competitiveness, and works to achieve environmental sustainability…In addition to the sustainable development patterns associated with livable communities, DOT will also promote the substitution of carbon intensive travel on congested highways and airways for use of more energy efficient transportation systems, including rail, water, and pipelines where feasible.”
We need the White House to connect those dots more frequently!
—Ross Capon
Posted by NARP
Tags: consumption, deepwater horizon, energy policy, obama, oil dependence, oil disaster, oil spill, ray lahood, strategic plan, transportation, us dot,Fast Track to Lazy Analysis
Friday, September 16, 2011
The worst thing about having a President throw their Administration’s support behind your cause is all the presidential politics it injects into what should be a discussion about good policy.
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Don’t get me wrong; we here at NARP are grateful to finally have someone in the White House who understands the benefits of trains, and the transformative potential of a truly world class passenger rail network. But it certainly has lead to a lot of head-scratching analysis.
Take Charles Lane’s recent post “Fast track to nowhere”, hosted over on the Washington Post’s politics blog. Lane criticizes President Obama’s American Jobs Act proposal, which calls for investment in the modernization of our transportation network. In an address before a joint session of Congress, the President argued that transportation projects can create jobs immediately, and increase U.S. competitiveness in the long term:
“Building a world-class transportation system is part of what made us an economic superpower. And now we’re going to sit back and watch China build newer airports and faster railroads? At a time when millions of unemployed construction workers could build them right here in America?”
Posted by NARP
Tags: american jobs act, cahsra, california, chris lane, high-speed and intercity passenger rail program, high-speed rail, obama, politics, washington post,U.S. and Illinois Departments of Transportation break ground on Chicago high-speed rail project
Thursday, October 13, 2011
At a groundbreaking held on Monday, work officially kicked-off on Chicago’s Englewood Flyover, a critical prerequisite to enable the Windy City to serve as the hub for the Midwest high-speed rail network.
By building a “flyover” bridge to separate traffic along two railroads, the project will ease congestion on one of the worst rail bottlenecks in the U.S. This will improve on time performance while simultaneously easing congestion for the 130 passenger trains and freight trains that move through the hub every day. If you’ve ever ridden a train in the Midwest, you’ve probably seen these delays first hand (a few NARP Council Members were held up at this congestion-point on their way out to our Council Meeting being held in Los Angeles this week).
From the U.S. DOT press release:
Since the 1990s, Midwestern states have planned an intercity passenger train network that connects the 40 largest cities in the Midwest with over 60 roundtrips from downtown Chicago each day. The Englewood project will benefit passengers traveling along an improved corridor from Detroit, which has been awarded several grants for construction projects to increase speeds to 110 mph. Travelers from Cleveland, Indianapolis and Cincinnati will also see fewer delays thanks to the new bridge. The project is part of the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE), a public-private partnership between the state, city and railroads aimed at untangling Chicago’s infamously snarled railroads where conflicts cause delays across all modes of travel.
The event was attended by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D), U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D), U.S. Congressmen Bobby Rush (D) and Dan Lipinski (D), and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D). While the movement of passengers and freight is certainly important politically—insofar as it is important to the local economy and to commuters—it is probably the 1,500 jobs the project will immediately create that attracted these political heavy-hitters
“The Englewood Flyover will make life easier for tens of thousands of commuters every day and put people to work immediately,” said Governor Quinn. “This vital project will eliminate a problem spot and set the stage for future passenger rail growth while boosting Illinois’ position at the economic engine of the Midwest.”
That sentiment was made more explicit by Secretary LaHood.
“Projects like this one are exactly why President Obama has made transportation such a big part of the American Jobs Act,” said Secretary LaHood. “We have workers on site today, American factories producing new supplies, and when the project is completed, people and goods will move more quickly and easily through the Midwest, making the region a better place to start a business or hire new workers.”
Considering the banner September the Federal Railroad Administration has had, you can’t blame the White House for using this as a platform to speak up for the infrastructure component of the American Jobs Act. It will be interesting to see who’s listening.
Posted by NARP
Tags: chicago, cincinnati, economy, englewood flyover, infrastructure, jobs, lahood, obama,Washington looking to expedite infrastructure projects
Image: Metro
President Barack Obama has identified 14 infrastructure projects to be fast-tracked in a Presidential Memorandum, a move recommended by his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. As a result of this order, the permitting and environmental review processes under the supervision of federal authorities will be expedited, allowing these high-priority projects to begin construction and start employing Americans.
One of the projects the Obama Administration identified would extend Los Angeles Metro’s light rail system, bringing it closer to the Los Angeles International Airport.
The White House has this to say about the project:
The Crenshaw/LAX project will extend the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (LA Metro) existing Green Line light rail nearer to the Los Angeles International Airport and connect it to the Expo Line light rail. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is providing additional targeted technical assistance to shorten the approval time for this project by several months. In addition FTA and LA Metro will pilot FTA’s new streamlined risk assessment approach for major transit projects to ensure risks and associated mitigation measures are identified and addressed promptly.
I was lucky enough to get a guided tour of Metro’s transit-rail system today as part of NARP’s Council of Representatives meeting taking place this week in Los Angeles. We rode along the Green Line while listening to Metro planners narrate their vision for Los Angeles’ transportation future. I even noticed a few commuters eavesdropping, leaning in to soak up the unexpected information being provided by these peripatetic lecturers. I certainly couldn’t blame them; the forethought displayed by these Metro employees was wonderful to listen to, and hinted at a Los Angeles no longer bound by highway gridlock.
What was clear, though, was that Metro wasn’t being dictated to by the Obama Administration. To the contrary, Los Angeles’ transportation officials had impressed upon the White House that they could do more than the current federal surface transportation authority allowed. This echoes other stories I’ve heard from transit planners, who chafe under a federal transportation framework that favors road-building over rail-laying. While not many cities have a mayor with the national profile on infrastructure that L.A.’s Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has, I can’t help but wonder how many transportation agencies across the U.S. are chafing for the opportunity to revitalize American cities.
Metro is confident that they can lead the way in showing how to build efficient transit, quickly. And now, we know Capitol Hill is paying attention.
Posted by NARP
Tags: american jobs act, los angeles, metro, obama, transit, white house,Riding passenger trains to an economic recovery
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
John Rosenthal wrote an excellent piece for Bloomberg on the rise and fall of high-speed rail’s bipartisan credentials, and why it is absolutely vital for America’s elected officials to get back on course.
“Riding High-Speed Rail to a U.S. Recovery,” published December 18, discusses the near-universal enthusiasm that initially met the unveiling of President Barack Obama’s Vision For High-Speed Rail in America:
Because of its ingenious scope, neither the airlines nor the auto industry contested the plan. It targeted corridors among major cities that are too far apart to drive, but too close to make flying worth the time and hassle of trudging through airport security: Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Milwaukee, for example, or Atlanta, Charlotte, Birmingham and New Orleans. Although trains wouldn’t compete with planes between New York and Los Angeles or, for that matter, Chicago, the plan would put high-speed rail within the reach of 80 percent of Americans.
Rosenthal traces the first moments of discord to the surge in power of the Tea Party, which sent a host of anti-government-investment legislators to Congress. He also makes a compelling case why this is a terrible move for America’s transportation network and economy:
From the Appian Way to the Erie Canal, economic development has always followed transportation. Businesses small and large cluster around train depots, propelling real estate values and generating millions in new property taxes. The U.S. built its way out of the Depression by investing in massive projects such as the Empire State Building, the Hoover Dam and the Blue Ridge Parkway. High-speed rail is a time-proven way out of today’s economic morass.
It is undoubtedly expensive. And rejecting the massive investments required as wasteful spending would be easy if America’s transportation needs were stagnant. But they aren’t. The Census Bureau estimates that the population will grow by 100 million over the next 40 years. And most of those people will reside in urban areas where airports and highways are already bursting at the seams.
Compared with the cost of building new airports, widening interstates, relocating highway sound barriers, and erecting millions of parking lots, high-speed rail is a bargain.
Rosenthal’s work is definitely worth a full read. You can find the full article here.
Posted by NARP
Tags: bloomberg, high-speed rail, jeff rosenthal, obama,©2010 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
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