Rail Passengers Endorse Train Stimulus Component; Reiterate Hudson River Tunnel Concerns
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Release #08-23—November 6, 2008
In a statement submitted for the record in the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee’s October 29 hearing on “Investing in Infrastructure: The Road to Recovery,” NARP President Ross B. Capon called upon Congress to invest in our national intercity passenger train network as a reliable, affordable way to bring broad economic benefits to the nation as part of a second economic stimulus bill.
“In a fragile economy, it is essential to have affordable mobility,” Capon noted. “Travel stimulates the economy. If Americans can’t travel by other means, they will stay at home and not spend money on travel and at destinations, further depressing recovery efforts.”
The immediate economic benefits of passenger trains Capon cited include job creation, more travel choices for Americans, a transportation system that is safer, more energy efficient and more environmentally benign, and incentives for energy-efficient, pedestrian-friendly station-area real estate development.
Capon endorsed Amtrak’s testimony at the hearing, including their proposal to return all 81 sidelined Amfleet cars to service as well as to upgrade Amtrak-owned infrastructure, and assist with meeting the Positive Train Control mandate of H.R. 2095. But he also urged rehabilitating sidelined Superliner cars, the versatile backbone of Amtrak’s Western fleet and supported a substantial investment in state-led passenger train investments. He noted that, after U.S. DOT’s recent dispersal of $30 million to states, a “substantial number of [state-led] projects are ready to go but still seeking federal funds.”
Finally, Capon reiterated NARP’s grave concerns regarding New Jersey Transit’s Access to the Region’s Core (Hudson River railroad tunnels) project, which is currently proposed as a dead-end tunnel terminating in a deep-cavern station at 34th Street, without the formerly planned track connection to New York Penn Station. Capon said that NARP “strongly urge[s] that the stimulus bill include the additional funding necessary to connect the… tunnels to New York’s Penn Station and require that this connection be restored. It is unthinkable to allow this $8 billion, New Jersey Transit project to proceed in a manner that leaves Penn Station with the same, tenuous links to New Jersey and all points west and south as currently exist, and makes more difficult any attempt far into the future to remedy the situation.”
Capon said that, while NARP’s “focus has been on restoring the link to New York Penn Station that was part of NJT’s plan until mid-2007, we remain concerned that so much secrecy has shrouded the 2003 report which ought to reveal the practicality of extending tracks to Grand Central (and thus whether creating a new NJT terminal near Penn Station is really an appropriate use of scarce resources).”
About NARP
NARP is the largest citizen-based organization advocating for train and rail transit passengers. We have worked since 1967 to expand the quality and quantity of passenger train service in the U.S. Our mission is to work towards a modern, customer-focused national passenger train network that provides a travel choice Americans want. Our work is supported by over 24,000 individual members.