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Archive for the ‘Rail’ Category

The Route to Reform: Blueprint for a 21st Century Federal Transportation Program

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

…America stands in desperate need of a new vision for our national transportation system. Just as the Interstate highway bill answered some of the most pressing mobility needs of the rapidly growing nation in the mid-20th century, a new federal surface transportation bill must answer the vastly different needs of America in the 21st century. The next transportation program must set about the urgent task of repairing and maintaining our existing transportation assets, building a more well-rounded transportation network, and making our current system work more efficiently and safely to create complete and healthy communities…

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The Public Works

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

URBAN OMNIBUS
Yes indeed, today in America we know that something is wrong, and we would like things to be better. Certainly the design disciplines have been energetic in engaging the converging crises of energy, housing, infrastructure, environment, climate change…

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Fast forward on Infra? High-Speed Rail Announcement

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Here is what the White House announced on January 28th:

“… the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is awarding $8 billion to states across the country to develop America’s first nationwide program of high-speed intercity passenger rail service. Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), these dollars represent an historic investment in the country’s transportation infrastructure, which will help create jobs and transform travel in America.”

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Andrés Duany, Architect, Author of “The Smart Growth Manual”

Thursday, January 28th, 2010
duany-andres_headshot

Andrés Duany, F.A.I.A., is a founding principal at the architecture and planning firm, Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ). DPZ is widely recognized as a leader of the New Urbanism, which seeks to end suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment. Duany has authored several books, including “The Smart Growth Manual” (most recently) and “Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.”

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Excerpts from The Brian Lehrer Show, with Gov. Rendell and Steve Anderson

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Wednesday, Jan. 13th

Steve Anderson, Managing Director, InfrastructureUSA.org, & Governor Edward G. Rendell, Building America’s Future, discussed infrastructure with WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer. Excerpts are available below, and you can listen to the entire program under “Infrastructure Matters” on WNYC.org.

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Written Comments from Brian Lehrer’s Radio Show on WNYC, with PA Governor Rendell and Steve Anderson, Managing Director, InfrastructureUSA

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Steve from Brooklyn
“I travel back and forth to Baltimore and Boston for work, and I prefer trains to planes. What’s going on with the high speed trains in the Northeast? When can I take a high speed train to Maine?”

Lorraine from Westchester
“Lots of talk about money for schools, but not so much about the buildings themselves. My school had has heating problems since October. Teachers and students are wearing their coats indoors and we are told to “send memos” to various administrators! It’s been a very cold winter.”

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Busiest Rail Corridor in the Country Excluded from Largest Grants of Rail Stimulus Money

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

REGIONAL PLAN ASSOCIATION
Competition is heating up over the federal government’s $8 billion high-speed rail program, with grants due to be announced in early 2010. Leading contenders for the largest category of funding – “Track 2-Programs” for rail corridors, as opposed to site-specific projects – include corridors in California, Florida, North Carolina and the Midwest, among other smaller routes in the Northeast like the Philadelphia-Harrisburg, New York-Albany, and New Haven-Springfield.

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Transportation Adaptation to Global Climate Change

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER
Rising sea levels, greater weather variability, and more extreme weather events like hurricanes, permafrost thawing, and melting Arctic sea ice are just some of the important changes that will impact transportation networks and infrastructure. Coastal areas are particularly vulnerable. A large portion of the nation’s transportation infrastructure is in coastal zones: nearly half of the U.S. population lives within fifty miles of the coast, and many roads, rail lines, and airports were built at or near water’s edge to take advantage of available right-of-way and land. Increasingly intense storm activity and surges, exacerbated by rising sea levels, are putting an ever-increasing range of this coastal infrastructure at risk…

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AASHTO Survey of the States: 9,500 Ready-to-Go Transportation Projects

Friday, December 11th, 2009

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
“We need to keep the momentum going. The unemployment rate in the construction trades today
exceeds 18 percent. There is still a need to invest more in transportation projects if that’s what it
takes to create jobs and bring unemployment down. What the state DOTs have done over the past
eight months to put economic recovery dollars to work shows there is no better way to create jobs
and long-lasting benefits in every part of the country.”

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William Lind: A Conservative Voice For Public Transportation

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

“At the 2009 Rail-Volution conference in Boston, Streetfilms was able to grab a few moments with the political conservative, transit advocate, William Lind. Lind aims to provide “liberal transit advocates” the language to build bipartisan support for public transportation (okay, just rail) in terms that conservatives can relate to. Some of Lind’s arguments don’t reflect our views here at Streetfilms, especially his disdain for buses (which we don’t cover in this video), but he makes a thought-provoking case for transit investment…”

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