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Flag Stops: Smarter and Cheaper

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

    Posted by Malcolm Kenton

    Tags: authorization, avent, congress, fares, freemark, fta, future, growth, high-speed rail, highway, housing, manufacturing, northeast corridor, planning, prices, recovery act, repairs, stimulus, transit,

    Unleashed TIGER Forges a New Path

    Wednesday, February 17, 2010

    Just three weeks after history-making intercity passenger train grants were announced, the Obama Administration unveiled $1.5 billion in Recovery Act grants under a revolutionary framework in which rail and transit figure prominently.  The program, dubbed Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER), marks the first time that the US Department of Transportation has awarded money across the institutional barriers that have historically held back funding for railroads and transit—and infrastructure that connects these with the rest of the transportation network.

    As with the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail “pot,” states’ applications greatly exceeded the available funds—$56 requested for every $1 awarded. Determining what percentage of TIGER funds went to each mode of travel is (happily) difficult since many of the projects benefit multiple modes. Grants benefitting passenger rail (including rail transit) total $574.1 million (about 38% of the total), while those aiding freight rail add up to $408.8 billion (about 27%). Transit improvement ventures (subway, light rail, streetcar and bus) got $699 million (about 47%), with highways getting almost 30%, and bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure about 10%.

    TIGER’s innovative, merit-based funding mechanism should become the mold in which most future federal transportation financing is cut. Including more funding for TIGER or a similar program in the Jobs Bill (currently before the Senate) would be an ideal way for Congress to signal its commitment to meaningful reform that will give Americans better mobility choices. NARP and our partners in the OneRail Coalition [link to come] will continue to sound the call for strong, balanced transportation investments that put rail in its rightful place as a key component in how America moves.

    Read on for an overview of how the awards are distributed, or go here for complete descriptions of each funded project.

    —Malcolm Kenton

    » read more...

    Posted by Malcolm Kenton

    Tags: congress, department of transportation, federal government, funding, grants, infrastructure, investment, job creation, jobs, light rail, passenger trains, railroads, recovery act, stimulus, streetcar, tiger, transit, transportation,

    Lazarus Lives in Troy, Michigan

    Thursday, January 19, 2012

    by NARP Vice Chairman John DeLora, also President of the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers (MARP)

    The back-and-forth fight over a new intermodal transit center in Troy MI has turned up interesting information about the federal High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail grant program (part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ARRA).  It also contains lessons on how to combat Luddites who oppose public transportation.

    Architect’s rendering of the soon-to-be-built Troy Intermodal
    Transportation Center

    In 2009, Congress passed the ARRA act, calling for major infrastructure improvements which would lead to high speed rail in the U.S. Shortly after enactment, the Federal Railroad Administration held a series of public conferences to explain the program and what it would do, and what it wouldn’t do. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) conference for the Midwest was held in Kansas City, MO. Key points were:

    1. States which applied for funds had to show a continuing commitment to passenger train service.
    2. Applications would be graded on an objective basis to eliminate charges of political influence.

    MARP warned several Michigan legislators that the practice of partial-year state funding for the Amtrak Blue Water and Pere Marquette (which had been done for several years, with supplemental funding when the first tranche was exhausted) would not be acceptable to FRA. The legislature went ahead with partial year funding anyway, and many were stunned to find that FRA had denied all Michigan applications.

    » read more...

    Posted by Malcolm Kenton

    Tags: amtrak stations, business community, chambers of commerce, high-speed rail program, local politics, michigan, recovery act, transportation investment, troy,

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