John Hennessy III,
P.E.
U.S. PIRG EDUCATION FUND
“…the experience of high-speed rail lines abroad, as well as America’s limited experience with high-speed rail on the East Coast, suggests that the United States can expect great benefits from investing in a high-speed passenger rail system, particularly if it makes steady commitments and designs the system wisely. High-speed rail networks around the world have delivered numerous benefits.”
AMERICAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION
APTA proposes that Congress invest $50 billion over the next six years in high-speed rail. The association says the investment during that time frame, along with $123 billion in public transportation investment, will help support and create 6.2 million jobs.
In a November 1 column in the Washington Post reproduced below, the respected economist Robert J. Samuelson attacks the Administration’s high-speed rail program as “wasteful spending masquerading as a respectable social cause.”…Samuelson’s blunt assessment appears in stark contrast to the Administration’s confident prediction, in the words of top federal transportation officials, of “a world class network of high-speed corridors” that would connect “80 percent of America in the next 25 years at a cost of $500 billion.” How can professional judgments be so diametricaly opposed and whose judgment will prevail?
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ILLINOIS PIRG
In building a 21st century economy, the Midwest is hampered by an outdated transportation system. Congested airports and crammed highways hinder travel around the region. As the main source of our dependence on oil, our transportation system leaves us vulnerable to oil price spikes and pollution…Intercity passenger rail in the Midwest can be part of the solution.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORTATION STUDIES
Just as the Interstate Highway System transformed the way Americans live and where they work, high-speed rail has the same transformative potential. In the arena of transportation, it is a disruptive technology, with the power – as LaHood noted – to reshape entire regions and communities in a more sustainable manner. Southern California will be ground zero for this transformation: of the seven corridor segments identified in the California High Speed Rail Authority business plan, Los Angeles to Anaheim is currently the most advanced in the planning and environmental review process, and could see limited service commence as early as 2017.
OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Within the reinvestment spending of the Recovery Act, over $100 billion is invested in innovative and transformative programs. This report explores four areas within those innovative programs in which game-changing breakthroughs are being sought, and in some cases, new American industries are being born.
According to InfrastructureUSA’s Steve Anderson, “We need a new pair of shoes and we’ve got to put the money in. We’ve got to recognize what our priorities are, and we have to demand that those people who we have entrusted with the management of these assets come up with plans that we will then agree to fund.”
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Chicago, perhaps like no other city in the United States, has set itself apart as a center of trade, and recently that has been expressed in the growth of its two airports, O’Hare and Midway. With the resurgence of passenger rail promoted by the Obama Administration, it may be able to reassert its dominance in that field; it will sit at the confluence of three upgraded intercity rail lines already at least partially funded: One to St. Louis, another to Detroit, and a third to Milwaukee and Madison.
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