Thursday, January 5, 2006
Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno today released a detailed by dramatically reducing travel time, improving reliability and increasing the frequency of trains across the state. The report, officially presented today to the Senate Task Force on High Speed Rail after six months of research by the Task Force Working Group, proposes short, intermediate and long term changes that would help New York remain economically competitive, stimulate new employment and firmly reestablish New York’s place as a national transportation innovator and rail technology leader.
“The Task Force Working Group, comprised of the best transportation experts in the industry, has provided a comprehensive, market-based blueprint for upgrading our rail system, which has fallen behind the rest of the world in terms of speed, reliability and frequency,” said Senator Bruno. “New York has always been a leader in transportation innovation, and we now have an opportunity, and an obligation, to improve our outdated rail system through this visionary plan and increase our economic competitiveness and our ability to utilize mass transit more efficiently and effectively.”
“The Senate will use this report as a blueprint this session to provide the resources and support necessary to begin making world-class rail service in New York State a reality,” concluded Senator Bruno.
“The development of this exciting and visionary action plan has been a very challenging but rewarding assignment for the entire working group,” said John Egan, Executive Director of the Task Force Staff. “Each member brought energy, professionalism and commitment to the task of producing recommendations that are difficult to implement in many areas but are critically important to the future of New York State. We are all immensely proud of our collective accomplishment, ahead of schedule and under budget.”
For the past thirty years, rail service in the Empire Corridor (New York City to Buffal