Anticipating an NPR series on high-speed rail, getting a beat on state applications for stimulus funds, countering Robert Samuelson’s flimsy anti-rail case, and more in this week’s roundup of revelations and ruminations along the line.
All Things Considered, National Public Radio’s evening newsmagazine, has begun a multi-part series on high-speed rail with a report this evening. You can find out when and where to listen in your area here.
For those following the spending of the Recovery Act’s $8 billion for passenger rail upgrades, now is when the wheels begin to hit the steel. States are starting to make known the nitty-gritty of their applications, among them Pennsylvania, Virginia and Oklahoma. See Friday’s Hotline for a more complete listing.
The St. Louis Urban Workshop does a spectacular rewrite of Robert J. Samuelson’s recent train-bashing Washington Postcolumn, turning his argument into a case against runaway highway spending. See also Paul Krugman’s pithy rebuke of Samuelson’s misconceived notion of US population density, and Ryan Avent’s critique.
While almost every state is facing a budget shortfall, Transportation for America’s nifty state fact sheets show that some are handling it better than others. Another revelation: there is high demand for expanded public transportation and for transit-accessible homes in nearly every state.
Secretary LaHood tours eastern Pennsylvania by rail, stopping in Elizabethtown to commemorate the stimulus-funded rehabilitation of the town’s Amtrak station. While certainly needed, the project was far from a major buildout, giving the station such necessities as an adequate platform, parking, and restrooms. That a station along such a well-traveled corridor was wanting such basics speaks to the subpar condition of funding for our passenger rail system.
A feature report (via YouTube) on CBS’s Sunday Morning casts US high-speed rail in a positive light, though it neglects to present the best arguments in its favor. Among the final points made is the illusory and beside-the-point claim that high-speed lines will be profitable, as opposed to “heavily-subsidized” Amtrak. Yet we seem to accept that the federally-subsidized airlines can’t make money.
Worth a read (or a listen): Trains for America sits down with Midwest High Speed Rail Association Executive Director (and NARP Council member) Rick Harnish to discuss the language he thinks rail advocates should be using. *** The Transport Politic recommends that the Federal Railroad Administration model the Federal Transit Administration’s “New Starts” funding mechanism for financing intercity rail improvements, so that money isn’t spent on projects that may not reach completion. *** A public radio interview with Smart Growth America CEO Geoff Anderson about why we need to fix our sights on rapid rail for the long haul. *** A new policy paper (summarized) envisions the creation of frequent interurban service to serve smaller communities and suburbs that would be bypassed by future high-speed and intercity passenger trains.
LCL: Georgia may miss out on federal funds already allocated for commuter rail from Atlanta to Griffin if there continues to be no sign of activity on its planning and construction. *** A Montgomery newspaper applauds Alabama’s initial overtures of interest in bringing back the Gulf Breeze, which connected Mobile, Montgomery and Birmingham until 1995. *** Studies of the effects of stimulus spending confirm that each job created on a road-building project comes at a higher price than each transit construction job. *** The politics behind Louisiana’s sudden about-face on requesting stimulus funds for a New Orleans-Baton Rouge link. *** When it comes to making smooth connections, Europeans are (not surprisingly) outdoing us. *** We can dream, can’t we? A fictional press release in 2051 from the Association of High-Speed American Railroads.
Real-estate experts acknowledge a shift is afoot, Amtrak raises expectations, and even more advances on the other side of the Atlantic.
The well-regarded annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate report for 2010, after a survey of over 900 industry experts, determined that outer-fringe suburban developments “have no staying power” and that all the smart money is being invested in transit oriented development and housing that is convenient to non-auto transportation, job centers and 24-hour amenities—showing once again that the kind of lifestyle that is most in demand can only be sustained by a strong passenger train network.
An Amtrak spokesman tells the Train Riders Association of California (TRAC) that Amtrak will make a “dramatic and bold” announcement on new equipment purchases in January, reports NARP Council member Jim Loomis. We should expect nothing less.
European countries are leaping even farther ahead of the US on the passenger rail front, writes Arthur Frommer in the Cape Cod Times. New high-speed lines are being built from Amsterdam to Brussels, Florence to Bologna (Italy), and Helsinki to St. Petersburg. Frommer also highlights changing demographics that contradict the low-U.S.-population-density argument, and plugs NARP’s vision for America’s future mobility. Meanwhile, British cities are organizing a push for escalated high-speed rail development.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood talks up rail at a major transportation policy symposium, saying “this Administration will not leave the future of railroads in this country to chance,” adding that he wants passenger and freight trains to be just as relevant to the US economy in the future as they were in the 1800s.
Once again, Ryan Avent says it well: “If you think there’s no substitute for the automobile, then the decline of the auto industry looks like running headlong off a cliff. But in reality, there is something just fine on the other side of the transition: a world in which people drive less and don’t mind it.”
The Midwest High Speed Rail Blog highlights two ways that passenger railroads are, and should be, generating more interest in train travel: by transporting popular sports teams and taking advantage of movie tie-ins.
A head-to-head comparison between living in Almeria, Spain (a country where trains have the lion’s share of the intercity air-rail market), and Milwaukee: in the former you see people out and about; in the latter you see an overabundance of “access roads, parking lots, highways and bridges.”
LCL: Light rail may be on its way to Monterey County, connecting it with regional rail in the San Francisco Bay area. * * * Take a ride in the cab of a Eurostar high-speed train from Paris to London, in 12 parts on YouTube. * * * Speakers at Wisconsin’s “Freight Rail Day” offer lobbying advice.
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