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 Printable Version
December 12, 2007
Dear Presidential Candidate:
Soaring gas prices, gridlock on the roads, delays at airports and concerns about climate change have Americans re-thinking their transportation options. Unfortunately, 30 years of neglect has left our nation’s intercity passenger train network inadequate to provide our citizens with the travel choices they demand and deserve.
The 23,000-plus member National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) has a plan to fix that, one that gives America back its national train network by creating a grid and gateway system that connects all three major population areas—cities, suburbs and rural communities. NARP’s plan, the Grow Trains Campaign, was introduced to you last summer. It can be found on our website.
We were delighted when much of what was proposed in that document was incorporated in Vision for the Future: U.S. Intercity Passenger Rail Network Through 2050, a report released on December 6, 2007, by the Passenger Rail Working Group (PRWG) of the federal National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. The Working Group was formed by Commissioner (and Wisconsin Department of Transportation Secretary) Frank Busalacchi.
Vision for the Future recommends an increase in key corridors and intercity routes, phased in over time; proposes an infrastructure financing mechanism that includes federal, state and private funds; recommends initial federal funding of $5 billion a year; outlines a methodology that ensures freight and passenger rail improvements go hand-in-hand; and urges the federal government to do a better job of collecting data on intercity travel patterns. Vision can be found on the internet.
As we enter the presidential election year, NARP is reaching out to the presidential campaigns asking them to support the PRWG recommendations. We note that:
Train travel is back. America’s use of Amtrak’s intercity trains has increased every year for five straight years—up 21% over 2002. During the same time, 60 new light and commuter rail services have opened up across the country, accounting for the largest increase in transit travel in the third quarter of this year.
More service attracts more passengers. Train travel has shown the most significant growth in areas with improved and expanded service, much of it a result of state initiatives to fund regional service despite a lack of federal investment and even a lack of federal matching funds.
Public support for passenger trains is growing. Over the last five years, voters around the country—in state and local ballot initiatives—have embraced expansion of train service. National polls have repeatedly documented a strong public support for trains.
Passenger trains are important to national security. Trains’ ability to fill critical gaps in transportation after both September 11 and the Oakland bridge collapse dramatically demonstrate that whether it’s another terrorist attack, infrastructure failure, or natural disaster, America needs options for moving its citizens in an emergency.
Trains help solve a perfect storm of problems. Highway and aviation gridlock, concerns about climate change, rising oil prices, and the need to lessen our dependence on oil, have coalesced. Americans now understand the benefits of train travel both for the nation and for them personally.
What’s next? As many states have already done, the federal government must make a commitment to dedicate a long-term funding stream to create a modern, customer-focused national passenger train system that provides a travel choice Americans want and which links cities, suburbs and rural America. Today, the federal government allocates less than one-tenth of 1 percent of its budget to the intercity passenger train system. This shortsightedness has left us with too few passenger trains, serving too few destinations, and forced the same squabbles every year at appropriations time.
This can change. Citizens, legislators, and state and local officials are demanding change. NARP’s Grow Trains Campaign and our 23,000 members want to make this nation’s need for a modern, national, intercity passenger train network an issue in your campaign. As you travel around the country and witness first-hand how strapped many Americans are becoming because they lack transportation choices, please consider the PRWG and NARP recommendations. Most importantly, please make the demand for a modern, national, intercity passenger train network a priority issue in your campaign.
We want to be a resource for you and your staff. To find out more about the PRWG Vision and NARP’s Grow Trains Campaign, or to get the most up-to-date facts and figures on trains, please contact our executive director, Ross Capon, at 202-408-8362 or by E-mail.
Sincerely,
George Chilson
President
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