President Obama’s first priority is to pass a “Stimulus Package”. He has stated it should create both immediate jobs plus long term jobs. It should help rebuild the Country’s Infrastructure and, hopefully, will also be Green. The building and extending of Commuter Rail as well as Amtrak style corridors between Cities less than 500 miles apart fits all the above requirements. A good example of this would be Governor Patrick, in Massachusetts, who campaigned on extending Boston’s commuter service to the coastal cities of Fall River and New Bedford.
Immediate Jobs would be created by relaying track on the existing, X-New Haven, roadbed installing Signaling and Grade Crossing protective gates. Jobs would be created for Rail and Concrete Tie manufactures. Additionial Locomotives and Passenger Cars would also need to be ordered.
Long Term Jobs would be created for Employees needed to operate and maintain the new trains and track.
Green ! Each Train speeding into Boston could result in as many as 600 automobiles being left at home or at a station. One diesel locomotive pulling 6 to 8 passenger cars would cut down both Air Pollution and Noise. For Passengers arriving in Boston, the Subway System would further reduce pollution.
Two of the proposed routes branch off the Northeast Corridor, already Electrified with Catenary Wire. If the lines to Fall River and New Bedford were also electrified, the air would be as clean as we can make a railroad while the electrical work would be creating even more jobs.
Find Two Cities, less than 500 miles apart, connected with an Interstate Highway. A Highway that is in “gridlock” each Rush Hour. You have a City that
Two quick points. One: corridors, 500 mile or less, don’t neccessarily need high speed rail, but just a reliable, frequent service. 79 to 99 mph would be perfect, yes, but 65 to 75 with service frequency and marketed right will do very well.
Second: noticing the work of the CCC of highway and bridges, infrastructure, built in the 30’s and 40’s, that were the transportation backbone of commerce that allowed us to win WWII and the Korean War and made us the industrial giant we were, projects that are still in use and very much useful today, leads me to believe Obama’s concept is good. Good because it puts people to work today and protects the economy of the future. I just hope the quality of engineering and workmanship of the CCC will be present in the present.
One problem … most of the stuff being talked about has to be designed and ready to go on a very short fuse. Previous politicians have all but assured that that will be impossible to do that in the northeast. If they do manage to fund it (questionable), the EIS process will probably kill it .
Also, the MA Lt. Governor has been campaigning for many years to increase MBTA commuter rail service to Worcester, MA (very near my hometown) and finally succeeded last year (2008). I love my state…[8D]
I know about the “short fuse” requirement, but it seems to me that those former Old Colony lines have been on the drawing-boards/back-burner for quite a while–I know I’ve been hearing about them forever.
Don’t you think some “short-fuse” and some “not-quite-so-short-fuse” programs might be useful to keep this going?
I give Mr. O credit for what will be an agressive hands on approach for fixing our economic problems. Only time well tell if it is successful. I however have doubts on some proposals of the stimulus package. Another taxpayer rebate most likely won’t be effective. Most who received a rebate last yr simply held on their money and did not spend it. The idea was to generate a spending boost for the economy and it failed. There is little to believe another one would be any different. The $300.00 I received in June, dumped in the bank and its still there. As for psgr rail improvements, there was little yaking on the topic during the campaign. His proposed choice for Transportation Sec isn’t a real pro rail dude and that does not help. If confirmed, I hope I’m proven wrong on what most likely more of the same we all have heard for yrs & yrs.
Well if an aggressive approach by spending massive money can lift us out of a recession and into prosperity, why don’t we do it all the time rather than just in a recession? We could always use a little more prosperity.
Much of the “Old” Boston Passenger rail lines, abandon in the 1960s, has alredy been returned to heavy rail service. Other lines just need funding. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) just bought the CSX Main Line from Boston to Worcester to expand service. Now extending the line south from Stoughton to Fall River and New Bedford on the old New Haven roadbed and, working with Rhode Island, to run trains on the Providence “Northeast Corridor” line south to Warwick and Kingston R.I. is the priority.
As I understand it, they are printing money and borrowing it from our future labor and from foreign investors. Printing money is inflationary, and I don’t think it makes any difference whether it is printed in good or bad economic times. Here is the way I see it:
The government borrows dollars and spends them on projects that create jobs. The jobs then pay the jobholders the dollars. The jobholders then pay the dollars back to the government so it can pay off the original loan. In the end, the jobholders and all the rest of the taxpayers simply paid the price and labor for new projects as though they had the extra time and money to spend in the first place.
Passenger rail travel just isn’t “modern” or efficient.
Look at air travel for example…you start your trip with a one hour fight through traffic to get to the airport. You pay through the nose for parking…you wait in line to check in…“SELF check in” using a computer that is as user unfriendly as most of the overworked “human” help. You’re finally herded on to an overheated, underventillated plane and you try to cram your caboose into a seat that is designed for midgets or maybe a five year old child. Next: you wait…and you wait…and you wait…for take off (anyone fly out of Atlanta lately?) with no explanations given. Finally you’re in the air…the pilot says something over a broker intercom that no one can understand…you’re a big burly guy…and a little hungry too after lugging your baggage 30 miles through the airport…soooo…they offer you a handful of peanuts and call that “SERVICE”… After hurling through the air at 500 mph you finally make it off the plane to find your baggage (or what’s left of it)… another 30 mile walk to a car and last but not least a battle to the finish line as you fight traffic once again. Clearly passenger trains can’t compete with all that.
They’d better hurry up an get in line behind the governors of Wisconsin and California, Larry Flynt, every bank, and pretty soon every mortgage holder. In fact, maybe they better just sit this round out. It’s okay, once they get done printing up this round of stimuli they can get in on the next trillion that I’m sure will be required in a few months.
You know, I’ve got an idea - we could put people to work building more printing machines for the US Mint. Afterall, there’s an incredible market for cheap dollars these days, and since they always seem to be in demand and they cost very little to make, this is win win, right?
Does passenger rail need a few billion? Best reserve some production time at the Mint now, or someone else will get it.
Honestly, this is insane. We will have to pay for money we are spending now. It’s almost like our gorvernment is imbarking on the worlds biggest interest only home loan. It costs very little up front and man! - that’s a nice house we’re living in isn’t it? What’s this about inflation?! Not to worry! That doesn’t happen in the US of A in the year 2009!! After all, with Jesus at the helm can we go wrong?
Let me add to the scenario: you are told, when you arrive at the airport, that your flight will leave on time. But–the crew that will take you on the first leg has to come in from another airport, and they cannot leave there on time because of cold weather and equipment malfunction. When you do arrive at your transfer point, you discover that the system to take you from one terminal to another is antiquated–go to the gate to take the bus from one terminal to the next, and you wait until the bus arrives, go down to the tarmac, board the bus, ride to the other terminal, get up to the concourse level, and discover that your connecting flight has already left. And, when you are ready to retur
There is no question that putting people to work benefits the economy - especially if they are put to work making basic infrastructure (and given the years of neglect and deferred maintainance there is definitely the need). Personally, I’d much rather see the stimulus packages go to producing things like transportation infrastructure that we actually need than to give the American public another check to spend on stuff made in China (even though my wife and I could use that extra $1200 since we’re in the process of buying a house). Obama’s stimulus package seems much better than Bush’s - again, put people to work in good jobs and they will buy stuff - put people to work building infrastructure and it will still be benfiting society decades from now.
Look for many of the projects that states want which have yet to be funded for the direction they are going. The one I am most looking forward is the “Trans-Dominion Express” - which will connect Richmond to Bristol, VA via Roanoke and Lynchburg with a connection to existing Amtrak service to Washington, DC. That is going to be one scenic trip - not sure of the exact routing out of Richmond - whether it will follow the ex-SOU line or go down the A Line (or perhaps part of the rebuild SAL line which North Carolina wants). Really, should attract a lot of leisure travelers and railfans to be able to ride a train into Roanoke again. I think that Virginia also has a plan for increased rail service between Lynchburg, Charlottesville, and Washington, DC (maybe from an expanded VRE). I keep hearing that there is going to be expanded service between Richmond and Washington once the third mainline on the RF&P gets completed.
Another one to look for - the North Carolina proposal to rebuild the SAL line from Richmond to Raleigh as a high speed passenger line. Again, that one is likely I am likely to use (will defini
