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TRAINS: A travel choice Americans want

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Flag Stops: People in Motion

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

  • Solid majorities of American voters think greater investment in trains and buses will be more effective at reducing congestion, pollution and oil dependence—and enhancing our quality of life—than building more roads, and are willing to pay higher taxes for it. These findings, based on a survey of 800 registered voters in all 50 states and DC, were released today by Transportation for America (T4A), a broad advocacy coalition of which NARP is a member. In another indication that train advocates’ goals are broadly shared, the sentiments respondents expressed cut fairly evenly across geographic, income and party lines. The main reason respondents gave for why they don’t use transit often, if at all, is that it is not available or convenient where they live, not because they are wedded to their cars or averse to using transit.

  • Also from T4A: Despite the higher sticker price on housing closer to city centers, urban living is actually more affordable than auto-oriented suburban living when transportation costs are factored in, according to a Center for Neighborhood Technology study [PDF]. This phenomenon, called location efficiency, doesn’t just occur in large cities: it can be realized in suburbs and small towns that are walkable and oriented around transit nodes. This reinforces the message from a 2000 Surface Transportation Policy Project report, “Driven to Spend: The Impact of Sprawl on Household Transportation Expenses.”

  • Following on the heels of West Virginia, Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson (D) signed into law a bill mandating the state’s Department of Transportation to begin a passenger rail program, giving Kansas a better competitive position in the scramble for future rounds of high-speed and intercity passenger rail (HSIPR) grants. Another enacted law creates the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact, formalizing cooperation between Kansas and its neighbors to advance passenger service. This, plus federal grant approval announced last week, is aimed at making the Northern Flyer a reality. NARP congratulates our newest Council Representative, Deborah Fischer Stout (President of the Northern Flyer Alliance) for her tireless efforts to make this happen!

  • In a sign of support for an expanded long-distance network, two of President Obama’s nominees for Amtrak’s Board of Directors wrote Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) indicating they would press for refined cost estimates for restoring the Salt Lake City-Portland Pioneer. The two nominees, plus a third pick, have been approved by the Senate Commerce Committee and are awaiting a confirmation vote in the full Senate.

  • New high-speed train service between the central Chinese cities of Zhengzhou and Xian is so popular that all airlines have ceased flights between the two locales. The train takes less than two hours to traverse 314 miles (comparable to a trip from Washington, DC to New Haven, CT). The Chinese government is steadily moving towards its goal of having more than 8,000 miles of new high-speed railroads built by two years from now, a feat often cited by President Obama and other leaders to show how far behind the US is in terms of modernizing the national rail network.

  • LCL: Support for a major rail freight mobility project—with potential benefits for passengers—is bringing the governors of some affected states together, 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats. * * * The gears have been set in motion for the electrification of the Caltrain commuter line from San Jose to San Francisco—meaning faster, greener trains in five years—upon the completion of ten years of study. * * * Amtrak ridership from the 4-month-old station in Leavenworth, Washington, is 11% higher than Amtrak’s original estimate, with visitors from the Puget Sound area opting to take the train rather than drive to the Bavarian resort town. * * * Despite a host of other budget cuts made in the same bill, an amendment to withdraw $8 million in state operating grants to Amtrak was thankfully defeated in the Missouri House of Representatives. * * * Amtrak stations in California will soon get new electronic displays showing real-time train departure information and announcements.

    • —Malcolm Kenton

    Posted by Malcolm Kenton

    Tags: affordability, amtrak, china, high-speed rail, housing, kansas, mark parkinson, opinion, passenger trains, pioneer, ron wyden, rural, survey, trains, transit, transportation, travel choices, urban, voters, west virginia,

    Flag Stops: If you build it…

    Monday, December 20, 2010

    WSDOT on Flickr

    Transportation chief strongly defends train investment. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition on Saturday (click for audio and transcript) to forcefully respond to growing criticism of the Obama Administration’s approach toward developing faster and more frequent train service in selected corridors through grants to states. He tells host Scott Simon that new Chicago-Dubuque and Chicago-Quad Cities lines should be seen as initial segments for service that will extend to the Twin Cities and Omaha, respectively. “If you build it, if you make it comfortable, if you make it so you can afford it, and get there in a timely way, I believe this is what Americans want,” the Secretary concludes.

    LaHood followed the radio appearance with a guest column in Sunday’s Orlando Sentinel, arguing that “we can no longer rely exclusively on roads as a strategy for economic growth over the long term.” Americans in 50 years will see a national passenger train network as indespensible, LaHood posits, the way Interstate highways are currently viewed. He points to states where construction on upgraded track has begun or will begin next year, linking significant short-term service improvements to a longer-term vision for a “national high-speed rail network.”

    The State of Virginia announced a landmark agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway to bring extended Amtrak Northeast Regional trains from Richmond directly into Norfolk via Petersburg, using the former Norfolk and Western line that currently hosts heavy container traffic the Port of Norfolk. Federal and state funds will be put to “speedy” work starting in 2011 to bring the track up to passenger-train standards, allowing for a 79-mph top speed. Look for more about this in this week’s Hotline News.

    In other news from the Old Dominion, Gov. Bob McDonnell, trying to close the state’s budget gap, proposed eliminating the Virginia Rail Advisory Board. By giving all intercity and commuter rail stakeholders (including passenger advocacy groups) a forum for dialogue, the Advisory Board’s existence has played no small part in putting Virginia ahead of most states in terms of the development of its passenger train network (witness the smashing success of year-old Amtrak service between Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Washington, and Northeast Corridor points). NARP member Dan Peacock defends the Advisory Board in a letter to the editor of the Washington Post.

    Giattina Aycock Architecture Studio

    The City of Birmingham, AL, is moving forward with an attractive design for a new intercity rail and bus depot to replace the current not-so-attractive facility located underneath the tracks. The modern, airy building, to be located on Morris Avenue between 16th and 19th Streets, will be able to accommodate two passenger trains at the platform simultaneously, as well as Greyhound and city buses, taxis, and a shuttle bus to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. Birmingham currently sees only two daily Amtrak trains—the north- and southbound Crescent between New York and New Orleans—but should see more in the future.

    Finally, a personal anecdote that illustrates the importance of having travel choices. My mother and I traveled from Washington DC this past weekend to visit three attractions in north-central New Jersey. Since the destinations were fairly spread-apart and one was not transit accessible, we rented a car (which also wound up being less expensive than a round-trip Amtrak ticket to Newark). The car worked well for touring places that aren’t located near passenger train routes (we returned via a scenic road that hugged the Delaware River), but had we taken the train to Newark and rented a car there, we would have saved about two hours of travel time and avoided paying for gas and rather hefty tolls. So, in the end, the train may have cost roughly the same or less than the rental car, even with the high Northeast Corridor fares.

    A safe and joyous holiday season and best wishes for the new year from all of us at NARP!

    —Malcolm Kenton

    Posted by Malcolm Kenton

    Tags: amtrak station, birmingham, bob mcdonnell, high-speed rail, interstate highways, norfolk southern, npr, orlando sentinel, passenger trains, rail advisory board, ray lahood, travel choices, us dot, virginia, weekend edition,

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