In the interest of maintaining some balance and perspective on what the Administration proudly calls “President Obama’s bold vision for a national high-speed rail network” we have tried to offer our readers a range of different points of view. It is in this spirit that we present below two commentaries. The first contribution is by Matt Dellinger, author of the highly praised book, “Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway” and a frequent contributor on transportation topics to the progressive website, Transportation Nation. The second contribution is by Ron Utt, Senior Research Fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, whose analyses of transportation policy have been a longstanding feature of that Foundation’s work.
View this complete post...Archive for the ‘Innovation Newsbriefs’ Category
A Requiem for “High-Speed Rail”
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011The Federal Transportation Program and the New Budget Realities
Thursday, April 7th, 2011As Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan is fond of saying, the debate in Congress has changed from how much we should spend to how much spending we should cut. The April 5 release of his proposed FY 2012 Budget Resolution, subtitled “The Path to Prosperity,” testifies to this new resolve. The New York Times’ David Brooks calls Ryan’s report “the most comprehensive and most courageous budget reform proposal any of us have seen in our lifetimes.” Although the Budget Resolution nominally addresses the FY 2012 budget, its message is likely to resound and influence the debate about fiscal policy and the role of the federal government in the U.S. economy long into the future.
View this complete post...The End of the Line: A highly ambitious high-speed rail programme in the US has hit the buffer of fiscal reality
Thursday, March 31st, 2011A well-intentioned but quixotic presidential vision, to make high-speed rail service available to 80 percent of Americans in 25 years, is being buffeted by a string of reversals. And, like its British counterpart, the London-to-Birmingham high speed rail line (HS2), it is the subject of an impassioned debate. Called by congressional leaders “an absolute disaster,” and a “poor investment,”, the President’s ambitious initiative is unraveling at the hands of a deficit-conscious Congress, fiscally-strapped states, reluctant private railroad companies and a skeptical public.
View this complete post...From this week’s National Journal Transportation Blog…
Thursday, February 24th, 2011Transportation spending in the foreseeable future, we are told by congressional leaders, will be limited to the tax receipts deposited into the Highway Trust Fund. The President’s Budget submission said the same in so many words when it pledged that funding for surface transportation will be “paid for fully without increasing the deficit.”
View this complete post...Mainstream Media Opinion Turns Against the High-Speed Rail Program Amid Attempts to Keep Florida’s HSR Project Alive
Monday, February 21st, 2011The trickle of criticism about the Administration’s high-speed rail (HSR) program several months ago has turned into a veritable torrent in recent days. Serious media opinion seems to have turned against HSR and this has enormously complicated the Administration’s efforts to turn congressional and public opinion around.
View this complete post...A Few Questions Concerning the President’s FY 2012 Budget Submission
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011The President said he will make sure that his program will be “fully paid for” and pledged to work with Congress to ensure that funding for surface transportation does not increase the deficit. But these vague expressions of intent are hardly appropriate in a Budget message which traditionally was meant to offer Congress and the public concrete explanations on how the Administration intends to fund its proposed program initiatives.
View this complete post...A $53 Billion High-Speed Rail Program to Nowhere
Tuesday, February 8th, 2011Vice President Joe Biden announced today a plan to spend $53 billion over the next six years on passenger high-speed rail projects that will help reach the goal of giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years. According to the announcement, the proposal will place high-speed rail “on equal footing with other surface transportation programs.” The initiative includes $8 billion in the President’s FY 2012 budget proposal, of which $4 billion will be focused on building new infrastructure and $4 billion will be dedicated to system preservation and renewal. The announcement makes no mention how the plan will be paid for.
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