Obama plots huge railroad expansion

- From Dave Rogers @ Politico

Last week, Emanuel greatly upped the ante, asking House-Senate negotiators for $10 billion for high-speed rail — far more than either bill provided.

Railroads made Chicago, and now a Chicago-rich White House wants to return the favor: remaking rail with a huge new federal investment in high-speed passenger trains.

The $787.2 billion economic recovery bill — to be signed by President Barack Obama on Tuesday — dedicates $8 billion to high-speed rail, most of which was added in the final closed-door bargaining at the instigation of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

It’s a sum that far surpasses anything before attempted in the United States — and more is coming. Administration officials told Politico that when Obama outlines his 2010 budget next week, it will ask for $1 billion more for high-speed rail in each of the next five years.

Yet for all the high stakes, the pieces didn’t fall into place until the end of deliberations on the recovery bill. And the way in which they did is revealing of the often late-breaking decisions — and politics — that shaped the final package.

As a candidate for president, Obama spoke of high-speed rail as part of his vision of “rebuilding America.” Campaigning in Indiana, he talked of revitalizing the Midwest by connecting cities with faster rail service to relieve congestion and improve energy conservation.

“The time is right now for us to start thinking about high-speed rail as an alternative to air transportation connecting all these cities,” he said. “And think about what a great project that would be in terms of rebuilding America.”

But the administration never emphasized high-speed rail when the House Appropriations Committee was writing its bill in January, so no money was included. The first real request came only days before the Senate Appropriations panel marked up, and the committee had to scramble to find room for $2 billion — in part by cutting other Obama priorities.

“I put it in there for the president,” Emanuel said in an interview. “The president wanted to have a signature issue in the bill, his commitment for the future.”

Emanuel himself was excited by the idea, but the decision to wager so much on high-speed rail reflected the fact that other candidates for a signature Obama issue were fading.

Moderate Senate Republicans, whose votes were needed, were resisting the president’s school construction initiative. Modernizing the nation’s electric grid, another White House favorite, seemed to have lost some of its cachet.

High-speed rail sailed through with surprisingly little attention paid to the president’s role.

The same Maine and Pennsylvania Republican moderates who had criticized Obama’s school construction initiative were more accepting of the rail funds, since the Northeast corridor has a major stake in more improvements. To help pay for the added cost, a business tax break — providing a five-year carry back for net operating losses — was narrowed to keep the focus more on smaller firms with receipts of less than $15 million.

At the same time, conservative Republicans seemed almost blind to Obama’s role. Instead, in their campaign to find pork barrel projects in the stimulus bill, they painted the whole funding as a scheme by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on behalf of Las Vegas interests seeking a rail link to Los Angeles. “Sin City to Tomorrow Land” was one description.

Here is Rep. Candice S. Miller (R-Mich.) explaining her vote against the bill Friday despite the benefits to her home state: “Michigan is a state of about 10 million people, and we are the hardest hit, as I said, by this economy. And yet we are expected to get approximately $7 billion from this bill. And apparently the Senate majority leader has earmarked $8 billion for a rail system from Las Vegas to Los Angeles? You have got to be kidding. You have got to be kidding.”

In fact, there’s little evidence that Reid had a decisive role, although he was happy to see his name mentioned for the sake of voters at home.

“It’s amazing. I’m stunned,” he said in an interview Friday, hours before the bill passed Congress. “I’m glad I get the credit in Nevada, but this is Obama’s No. 1 priority. This is his legacy issue out of this bill, because we need these high-speed corridors. ... I’ll take credit but frankly didn’t have much to do with it other than carry forward with what Obama wanted.”

Big hurdles remain. Critics already argue that the money is misplaced in a stimulus bill since it will be hard to spend quickly. Much depends on winning the cooperation of Class 1 freight lines that control many of the rights of way outside the Northeast.

But it is a landmark transportation investment with regional effects in almost every corner of the nation. Just last October, former President George W. Bush signed a bill authorizing up to $1.5 billion for high-speed rail through 2013. Obama’s commitment in the same period will be eight times that.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is given 60 days to come up with a strategic plan for the funds. The combination of large capital upfront — followed by annual appropriations — fits the prototype for the infrastructure bank once considered for, but never included in, the recovery bill.

“High-speed rail is the infrastructure bank,” said Emanuel, and the legislation gives LaHood discretion to assign “priority to projects that support the development of intercity high-speed rail service.”

There is some precedent. At the height of the New Deal, FDR’s Public Works Administration played a role in persuading the Pennsylvania Railroad to complete the electrification of its Washington-New York line and finish Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. Today, the government could make capital investments that both benefit freight operations and facilitate high-speed passenger service. With the drop in freight traffic, the railroads might be more cooperative, although they are sure to want some liability protection for accidents.

© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC

New Day for Transportation with Significant Investment in Rail

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act now passed by Congress, the public transportation industry stands ready to help Americans get to work on public transit projects nationwide.

"This groundbreaking legislation will give people expanded travel options, while creating or supporting hundreds of thousands of American jobs," said American Public Transportation Association (APTA) President William W. Millar. "Setting the course for years to come, this legislation will begin to craft a greater intermodal transportation system that our nation desperately needs."

The economic recovery legislation provides $8.4 billion for investments in public transportation projects. Of the $8.4 billion provided for public transit, $6.9 billion will be distributed to public transit systems through the Federal Transit Administration's formula program that is already in place. The remaining $1.5 billion will be available as grants for new major projects and modernizing the nation's urban rail systems.

The legislation also includes for the first time, a significant investment of $9.3 billion for intercity passenger rail, including $8 billion for high speed rail corridors and $1.3 billion for Amtrak. Additionally, there is $1.5 billion for a new, intermodal discretionary program that can be used for public transportation, highways, bridges, freight rail, and ports. Separately, an additional $150 million for rail and transit security grants is provided to help make our public transportation systems more secure.

"With public transportation ridership at modern record levels and local and state transit ballot initiatives resoundingly approved by voters, the American people have demonstrated that they want more public transit services," said Millar. "Congress is listening to the public and this legislation is responding to the public will."

Pointing out that Congress also included tax incentives to encourage transit commute benefits at the same level as parking benefits, Millar said, "We are very pleased that Congress, for the first time, has made the transit commute benefit equal to the parking benefit, which is currently $230 per month. This action will provide a tax-free way for employers to encourage their employees to use energy-efficient, fuel-saving public transportation."

"Investing in public transportation and intercity and high speed rail is part of the solution to helping build a stronger economy," said Millar. "Passage of this legislation is a win-win for American workers who need jobs and for the millions of people who take public transportation and passenger rail."

APTA is a nonprofit international association of 1,500 member organizations including public transportation systems; planning, design, construction and finance firms; product and service providers; academic institutions; and state associations and departments of transportation. APTA members serve the public interest by providing safe, efficient and economical public transportation services and products. APTA members serve more than 90 percent of persons using public transportation in the United States and Canada.

SOURCE American Public Transportation Association

A Future Interstate Rail Network

This is an awesome start in visualizing a national Rail network!

A Future Interstate Rail Network - Redux « the transport politic

Madison Square Park

be careful what you wish for

Economist.com - Infrastructure

Be careful what you wish for

Feb 5th 2009 | CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition

Spending on infrastructure could easily run amok

“WE WILL create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s,” declared Barack Obama back on December 6th. The words rang blissfully in the ears of enthusiasts for public works across the country.

AP

Not all the money will be wasted

Then came the stimulus proposals in Congress. On January 28th the House passed an $819 billion bill with about $100 billion devoted to infrastructure, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The Senate’s version, at around $900 billion, is still under debate. Whatever emerges from Congress, it will be merely a “down-payment”, says Ed Rendell, Pennsylvania’s gravel-voiced governor.

A main conflict lies between the need to spend quickly and the desire to spend well. Much emphasis has been placed on projects that are “shovel-ready”, and with good reason. Every $1 billion spent on transport infrastructure creates 35,000 jobs, according to the Department of Transportation. The rush to spend, however, may exacerbate a troubling trend. For years federal money has been distributed haphazardly. Now, as David Paterson, New York’s governor, dryly puts it, “Everyone with a shovel says they’re shovel-ready.” A few bad projects are seeking new life from the stimulus. Connecticut is rumoured to be reviving an old plan to build a road long dismissed as unnecessary.

There is at least one way to reconcile speed with strategic investment. Robert Puentes of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, suggests that money should be spent only on maintaining existing assets such as pipes, roads, public transport and bridges. Money would not be thrown at unworthy new projects. Fixing old roads also supposedly creates 9% more jobs than building new ones. Such a provision, however, is not in place. The states have almost complete jurisdiction over how the stimulus money is spent; Congress is not even earmarking funds for particular purposes.

Some states are planning well. Others are more problematic. Almost half of Massachusetts’s transport request is devoted to buses and trains, which create 19% more jobs than investing in new roads. All the money for roads will go towards maintenance. The transport requests of 19 states are public; of these, more than half have asked for 80% of the funding to go to roads, mostly towards new ones.

One advantage of the stimulus, according to Mr Puentes, is that it will track where money is spent, so that politicians will see which investments are still needed. This presumes that the stimulus is only the beginning of a larger, more strategic plan. Robert Yaro, of New York’s Regional Plan Association, is concerned that there is still no national vision. On January 28th ASCE estimated that $2.2 trillion is needed over the next five years to raise the nation’s infrastructure from a “D” to a “B”. The House bill has only $9 billion for public transport and $30 billion for highways. An amendment to add $25 billion in infrastructure spending to the Senate’s bill failed on February 3rd. This may be a blessing, given how the money is likely to be spent.

Sprawl is Dead - Mr. President

"The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody… recognizes that’s not a smart way to design communities. So we should be using this money to help spur this sort of innovative thinking when it comes to transportation."

NextBus

ANDY RIGA

The Gazette

Saturday, February 07, 2009

CREDIT: PETER J. THOMPSON NATIONAL POST FILE PHOTO Users of downtown Toronto's Spadina streetcar are getting a taste of the future. One screen shows the real times of the next streetcars; the other shows a live map featuring the location of all streetcars on the route.

With public transit, schedules are more a rough guide than a set-in-stone
certainty. Weather, traffic and mechanical problems throw them off.

In an effort to attract new users and keep current ones happy, some
transit authorities are using technology to give passengers
up-to-the-minute info about the location of buses, subways and trains.

Fifty North American municipalities, including San Francisco, use technology known as NextBus, sold by Toronto's Grey Island Systems. Toronto's TTC just started phasing in NextBus so its real-time info is not online yet.

Here's how it works.

Each vehicle is fitted with satellite-tracking and wireless-communication technology.

The global positioning system equipment retrieves the bus's location from satellites, and the wireless equipment transmits that data to a central computer.

That computer continually estimates the vehicle's
arrival time at upcoming stops. The system takes into account the
vehicle's current position, its intended stops, average speed on a
given segment of road, the season, and traffic patterns.

"If there's a snowstorm, it can be tweaked for a given day," said Owen
Moore, president of Grey Island Systems. The system can also take into
account delays due to road work and detours.

"The idea is if you take the biggest unknown out of public transit - not knowing exactly
when that bus is due to arrive - then hopefully you can make the
experience more enjoyable for passengers and get them to use public
transit next time."

Those predictions are made available on the Internet, cellphones, hand-held computers and signs at transit stops. The signs are rugged and placed out of reach to avoid vandalism. Their size varies. Signs as big as large flat-screen TVs can be installed at major hubs, other smaller ones providing one line of text can be
installed at bus stops.

Transit users can also sign up for email or cellphone alerts for specific transit routes. If you regularly take
the same bus at the same time daily to go home or to work, Moore said, "it will send you a message at a predefined time to let you know it's going to be early or late."

Infrastructure Needs a Bill of its Own

By Edward L. Glaeser | February 6, 2009 - Boston Globe

PRESIDENT OBAMA is the first urbanite in the White House since Teddy Roosevelt. He certainly knows the vital role that cities play in America. Yet despite the Chicagoan on Pennsylvania Avenue, infrastructure spending in the House stimulus bill follows a business-as-usual pattern that discriminates against density. The only way to break that pattern is to take non-repair-related infrastructure spending out of the stimulus, and craft a separate bill that looks beyond the current recession. Major infrastructure projects, especially in cities, cannot be done quickly.

Per capita transportation spending in the House stimulus package, including transit, is more than 50 percent higher in the 10 least dense states than in the 10 densest states, including Massachusetts. Yet America's highways and rails already make it easy to move goods and people across America's open spaces. The hard slog is getting across dense downtowns. Other elements in the stimulus package also favor farm over city. The subsidies for broadband infrastructure are unnecessary in already-connected cities. Access to the latest technologies is, after all, one reason for cities' economic success. The $6 billion for weatherizing homes will surely do more for rural America than for apartment dwellers. There is urban spending in the bill, but money spent rehabilitating public housing is not the transformative investment that will make cities more productive.

Infrastructure is the skeleton on which the economy hangs. In the 19th century, America built a great transportation network of rails and canals that enabled the wealth of the land to make its way east. America's 19th-century cities - Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh - were nodes on that network that grew along with it. In the 20th century, Americans built a highway system that decentralized urban areas. Brown economist Nathaniel Baum-Snow documents that with each extra interstate highway ray, cutting from suburb to city, central city population declined by about 10 percent relative to its suburbs. That suburban exodus reminds us that infrastructure can have far-reaching consequences. Serious, time-consuming planning is needed to make sure that adverse consequences are anticipated and minimized.

A visionary infrastructure strategy cannot fit into a stimulus package. For stimulus, speed is vital. The Big Dig took 21 years. Working in cities is particularly slow because it takes time to tunnel, and because community opposition holds up urban mega-projects. A need for speed will always create an anti-urban bias.

America needs both a stimulus package and new infrastructure, but combining the two in one bill is a mistake. Congress should eliminate any pretense that the stimulus plan is addressing long-run infrastructure needs, and leave in only those infrastructure expenditures, like rehabilitating decaying roads and bridges, that require minimal planning, public approval, and time to implement.

A separate infrastructure bill would take cost-benefit analysis seriously, and direct spending to the projects with the highest returns. This means breaking the infrastructure spending status quo. As the Office of Management and Budget's expectmore.gov website notes, highway infrastructure "funding is not based on need or performance and has been heavily earmarked." To reduce boondoggle projects, localities, particularly wealthier ones, should provide a significant share of the funding. Requiring locales to pony up their own cash helps ensure that new projects are really valued.

The role of cities is vital. According to County Business Patterns, 56 percent of America's wages are earned in the 22 mega-metropolitan areas with more than 2 million people each. A serious infrastructure bill would aid metropolitan areas, but ask for sacrifice in return for subsidy.

Local opposition has the ability to make projects slower, more expensive, and far less efficient. The train ride to New York would be much quicker if Connecticut had allowed the Acela line to run straight. Federal aid needs to be made contingent on efficient routes and limited cost overruns.

The cities that stand at the center of the economy need new infrastructure, but that can't be built in two years. To ensure an infrastructure plan that does not shortchange metropolitan America, major infrastructure needs to come out of the stimulus package and get a bill of its own.

Edward L. Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard University, is director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston.

Rider Paradox - Surge in Mass, Drop in Transit

Rider Paradox - Surge in Mass, Drop in Transit - NYTimes.com