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TIGER grants fund rail projects across the country
Port of Tuscon?
I see the socialists are getting restless. No problem. That is their purpose. Meanwhile, shift the decimal one place to the right and you will have the true cost of all these projects. Remember who put Foxx in charge? The expert in wasting money, Chicago style, of course. Didn’t Da Mayor, Richard J Daley once say that voters will let you waste all kinds of money, just as long as you keep the streets plowed? But I still want to know how Amtrak expects to beat a bus traveling at 65+ MPH non-stop between St Louis and Chicago once IDOT gets that bridge fixed at Arsenal Road. You know. That bridge. It is for moving all those containers going in and out of BNSF’s container yard on the old arsenal property. Shippers want their freight to move on time and with the new Obama mandated hours of service law, it is even more critical now that container drivers have 30 minutes less time, which means they will drive even faster with that container.
Now as for that self proclaimed so called “Quiet Zone.” This is proof that NIMBY gangs have infiltrated Washington, District of Corruption. But if they really want a “quiet zone,” then take a page from Monty Python and suspend 16 ton weights on each side of the crossing. The weights come down with the gates, smashing the grade crossing offender, thereby making the crossing safe for the freight train, eliminating the need for in cab cameras, which will make the crew happy and result in less damaged freight for the railroad.
I can’t wait to see what Jeffery Guse thinks about this. From his standpoint we should probably only fund 20-lane highways that destroy, promote high-pollution cars, chopping down all the trees, raising the sea level, and killing all homeless people to save money on welfare. All other transportation should be eliminated, rail lines torn up for scrap money, and traffic jams a nightmare in the city. I just can’t wait to see what Jeffery Guse has to conjure up about this article.
The quite zone with federal dollars is questionable.
Quiet zones scare me. Well intended, but dangerous.
Never heard of Drydock?
All of these projects are questionable. Private companies should pay for their own improvements.
Any money that goes to the sooner state is long over due. Uprr network in the state is getting better all the time but theres still work to be done.
A port doesn’t need water! It is Intermodal and warehousing. There is also a port on the UP at Silverbow,MT near Butte. Try www.portoftucson.net .
A “Quiet Zone”, anywhere, is silly. Have we forgotten Midland, TX already?
West Trenton is in New Jersey.
West Trenton is in New Jersey.
The way you beat a 65mph bus is by going 110mph!! And of you own the the Northeast Corridor even faster. Whilst the under invested public taxpayer supported roads are jammed with traffic. Port of Tuscon think Sunset route improvements. Vermont they made the decision many years ago that all they want is a rural state with no development. (My company’s permit department referee to Vermont as vermin) . Of course Vermont prefers rail to road. I do think Vermont would prefer the none of the above category in transportation. And 166 million vs how many billions were spent on highways. The majority of the funds were spent to improve government owned (Federal, State, and Local) facilities. 10 mil for a platform sounds like added track. That gets kind of pricey.
Why does a station Platform cost $10 million? At least the other prices were reasonable for what was involved. Heck, they were building anew overpass for just $1.7 million.
Why is it we have to turn every article into a mud slinging contest? We ALL love railroads,why dont we just focus on that and leave our political views for another day or platform.
In a Tiger grant, $25,000 is needed for an EPA certification to remove and dispose old rail ties, and another %30,000 to hire a civil engineer to oversee the tie replacemnet. As if the railroads do not know how to do this.
This occured with a $245,000 grant to replace 4 miles of Gies, only the governemt knows how much is required in the larger events.
“Port of Tucson, AZ”; what’s that? It isn’t a "port’ of entry; too far from the border, surely… and this is AZ, so neither a river nor sea ‘port’…
We have quiet zones in my community. We still lose a student or two every year from walking between the rails with headphones on high volume, but no problems with cars. The concrete dividers make it difficult if not impossible to enter the tracks once the gates come down. It takes so much work to get around the gates while crossing concrete barriers that the train is likely to be gone before the idiot succeeds. It’s wonderful. I like the sound of train horns, but I sleep so much better now. Before you criticize quiet zones and decide that they don’t work, why not do some research. A few facts never hurt. Besides, you might learn something.
I’m certainly all for increasing the balance between highway, air and rail infrastructure development but it is hard to get happy excited with $$ numbers like those mentioned in the article considering all the red ink in Washington.