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North Carolina legislature examines state railroad
Watch this carefully. NC has a new governor who is extremely hostile to rail & transit plus a legislature promising they will cut taxes while making state government run better. I predict they will try to raid the NCRR coffers to put its money into their pet projects instead of the current uses which fund better rail service to the state and are preparing for the NC portion of the SE High Speed Rail. I hope I’ll be proved wrong.
Taking Mr. Herndon’s characterisation of NC’s newly elected governor on faith, I suspect he is correct on what the future holds for NCRR. I don’t imagine the governor and legislature look at their other investments in transportation, highways and airports, with the same demand that they create a tangible return.
“It’s the same, it’s the same old song”.
Pat McCroy isn’t as hostile to rail or transit as you make him out to be. He led the drive to develop a mass transit vision in Charlotte and developed the cities first light rail line. Unless he has changed or his views differ on Amtrak (although he did help lead the planning for a new CLT Amtrak station) I don’t think McCroy is a concern, considering he has always been a moderate republican and even accused of being to liberal in the past by fellow republicans. The house on the other hand is very anti rail which is sad.
If NCRR’s coffers get raided, it will probably be to spend them on the proposed idea of charging tolls to drivers on I-95 at the VA/NC line, and building new toll roads, which are NOT needed. Many other highways in NC are in bad shape and need safety modifications or repairs. Building rail first will allow those who value their time more to get things done by travelling by train instead of sitting stuck in traffic and possibly risk serious injury or death trying to text, be on the phone, work with a laptop, while behind the wheel. Do the rail projects first BEFORE major highway repairs, and then AFTER the highways are rebuilt, those who want to go back to driving will do so and those who want to to continue to ride the train will stay on board. It’s nice to have both choices to travel by, but let’s not build more NEW roads, especially toll roads. Who LIKES paying tolls? You’re nuts if you do and then you have no room to complain then about gas taxes or the way government spends money on other transportation projects.
If NCRR’s coffers get raided, it will probably be to spend them on the proposed idea of charging tolls to drivers on I-95 at the VA/NC line, and building new toll roads, which are NOT needed. Many other highways in NC are in bad shape and need safety modifications or repairs. Building rail first will allow those who value their time more to get things done by travelling by train instead of sitting stuck in traffic and possibly risk serious injury or death trying to text, be on the phone, work with a laptop, while behind the wheel. Do the rail projects first BEFORE major highway repairs, and then AFTER the highways are rebuilt, those who want to go back to driving will do so and those who want to to continue to ride the train will stay on board. It’s nice to have both choices to travel by, but let’s not build more NEW roads, especially toll roads. Who LIKES paying tolls? You’re nuts if you do and then you have no room to complain then about gas taxes or the way government spends money on other transportation projects.