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Archive for the ‘Rail’ Category

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Railroad Financing: Changes to the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program

Friday, July 22nd, 2016
Figure 1: Number and Dollar Amount of Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program Loans Approved, Fiscal Years 1998 through 2015, by Loan Type

Financing the various rail infrastructure projects will be challenging. Congress has not funded the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program—a program used to fund passenger rail projects—since fiscal year 2010 and appropriations to Amtrak have remained relatively steady at about $1.4 billion over the last 5 years. One potential source of funding is FRA’s Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program, which is a $35 billion loan and loan guarantee program to finance, among other things, freight and passenger rail facilities. Since program inception in 1998 about $2.7 billion in loans have been executed, and no loan guarantees have been made.

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The Economic Impacts of Railroads

Friday, June 17th, 2016
Freight Rail

ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN RAILROADS
This report, the second in the Association of American Railroads’ State of the Industry series, for the first time ever, shares data that begin to quantify the freight railroad sector’s economic and fiscal impact. The findings underscore the fact that freight railroads trigger a powerful economic ripple effect across a myriad of U.S. industries.

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Who Is ARTBA?

Thursday, June 2nd, 2016

Video details the history, mission and accomplishments of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA).

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Billions for Red Tape: Focusing on the Approval Process for the Gateway Rail Tunnel Project

Friday, May 13th, 2016

COMMON GOOD
Two new rail tunnels need to be built under the Hudson River to alleviate a critical rail bottleneck and permit overhaul of century-old tunnels. The purpose of this report is to outline the economic and environmental costs of different permitting timetables, and to propose approval mechanisms that will save taxpayers billions and avoid significant environmental harm.

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New Principles for Our Transportation Program

Thursday, May 12th, 2016
Century Foundation: New Principles for Our Transportation Program

THE CENTURY FOUNDATION
The next president will need to create a true and comprehensive vision of America’s transportation infrastructure, a program to pursue that vision, and honest mechanisms to fund it. This report addresses the new principles that should serve as a foundation for a future transportation program that will enable America to meet its potential.

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Posted in Biking, Bipartisan, Competitiveness, Infra Views, National, Policy, Public Transportation, Rail, Roads, Smart Growth

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International Lessons for Promoting Transit Connections to High-Speed Rail Systems

Wednesday, May 11th, 2016
Figure 1. Number of Urban Bus Lines vs. Population ÷ Number of HSR Stations

MINETA TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE
The California High-Speed Rail (HSR) project has matured to the point that initial design of segments in the Central Valley was started in 2014, beginning the long process of completing the California HSR program. One significant concern that many communities involved in, or affected by, the California HSR project have is how to connect the new HSR passenger services to local urban transport, such as bus and light rail. The route and stations for the first segment of the HSR system are well known, but many questions remain about how HSR will be integrated into the existing (and future) California transportation system.

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MIPRC Survey: Good News, Growth Potential for Passenger Rail

Friday, April 29th, 2016

MIDWEST INTERSTATE PASSENGER RAIL COMMISSION
The survey identifies strong support for passenger rail as an integral piece of the national transportation future, and even finds strong willingness to advocate on behalf of passenger rail. But the survey also shows that neither students nor – by inference – the general public are aware of the roles played by states and the federal government in funding Amtrak and in determining passenger rail routes and service frequencies. Thus we strongly recommend that a public education campaign be considered to clarify this point.

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Outstanding Engineering: Phase 1 of Florida’s SunRail Commuter Rail System

Monday, March 28th, 2016
HNTB: Florida SunRail

Since its opening in May 2014, SunRail has proved a practical alternative to I-4, the region’s main thoroughfare. The initial 31 miles of Phase 1 of the SunRail Commuter Rail System serve passengers at 12 different stations across eight different cities in Central Florida, from DeBary in the north to Sand Lake Road in the south. On average, 3,700 Central Floridians ride the train per day.

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Georgia State Rail Plan

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2016

A highlight of Georgia DOT’s State Rail Plan which serves as a statewide long-range rail planning document and provides comprehensive railroad industry data.

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Michael Melaniphy, President & CEO, American Public Transportation Association (APTA)

Wednesday, February 24th, 2016
Michael Melaniphy on The Infra Blog

Michael P. Melaniphy is president and chief executive officer of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and president of the American Public Transportation Foundation. Melaniphy’s entire career has been in public transportation, with more than 30 years of both public and private sector leadership experience.

“As a kid growing up you had a binary choice: you were either a bus kid or you were a car kid. You were one of the two. And you look at today’s environment and it’s a multi-modal environment. We have evolved as a society to understand that now it’s about mobility choices…So as we look at what are the best utilizations of our scarce resources in a community, people are looking at the full assortment of choices, and as we look at the unbelievable growth that’s going to come in the population set of this nation we’ve found that paving our way to a solution is not the best choice.”

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