Obama outlined high-speed rail plans today

[furrbear]

Obama announced his high speed rail plans today, via White House press release:

The President released a strategic plan outlining his vision for high speed rail in America. The plan identifies $8 billion provided in the ARRA and $1 billion a year for five years requested in the federal budget as a down payment to jump-start a potential world-class passenger rail system and sets the direction of transportation policy for the future. The strategic plan will be followed by detailed guidance for state and local applicants. By late summer, the Federal Railroad Administration will begin awarding the first round of grants.

Additional funding for long-term planning and development is expected from legislation authorizing federal surface transportation programs.

The report formalizes the identification of ten high-speed rail corridors as potential recipients of federal funding. Those lines are: California, Pacific Northwest, South Central, Gulf Coast, Chicago Hub Network, Florida, Southeast, Keystone, Empire and Northern New England. Also, opportunities exist for the Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston to compete for funds to improve the nation’s only existing high-speed rail service.

If Europe can do it and China can do it and Japan can do it, I'm pretty sure the U.S. can do it. During his speech, Obama said, "It's being done. It's just not being done here. There's no reason why we can't do this. This is America. There's no reason why the future of travel should lie somewhere else, beyond our borders." He's right.

It's great watching Obama when he talks about new plans like this for the country. He invokes the country's can-do attitude, which seemed lost during the Bush debacle. He's getting "people to imagine what's possible."

Visit the Fed. Railroad Admin link above for Strategic Plan and Route Map. (Shame St Louis to Little Rock isn't included in the High-Speed plans.) No sign of the LAX-LAS route up I-15. No new right-of-way from the looks of it.

Comments

[popebuck1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember the "anti-pork" brigade going crazy over a supposed link between Disneyland and Las Vegas - which (1) doesn't exist on the plan, and (2) would actually make a lot of sense if it did. Do they know how much traffic goes between LA and Las Vegas every single weekend?

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Been there. Drove that. Got the t-shirts. There's actually a good deal of traffic on that stretch of I-15 every day of the week -- it's just worse on Fri & Sun.

Yeah as I recall, it wasn't from Disneyland (which isn't even on MetroLink's OC Line, it's closer to Angel's Stadium) but from LA's Union Station.

[robearal.livejournal.com]

It isn't happening here because of the auto industry.

And don't forget…

[ursine1.livejournal.com]

The airline industry is also a foe of trains.

Chuck

[geometrician.livejournal.com]

I'm all for it. It is my favorite way to travel, and the Amtrak system is horrible. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a vacation and just get an Amerail pass to go wherever you felt like!

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

I could drive in the winter between St Louis and Fort Worth, 3-6 hours faster than if taking Amtrak.

[sultmhoor.livejournal.com]

Amtrak isn't that bad, but when it's bad it's horrible.

[sultmhoor.livejournal.com]

I've heard so much yapping about a high speed corridor over the last 20 years it just makes me chuckle. Believe it when I see it, and all that. Even with the only chunk of owned-by-Amtrak high speed rail (in the Detroit->Chicago line) you can wait up to six hours more than it takes to drive.

[sultmhoor.livejournal.com]

(errata: only chunk outside of the Northeast corridor...)

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

If Europe can do it and China can do it and Japan can do it, I'm pretty sure the U.S. can do it

As long as we actually bother to fund it rather than slowly starve it to death like a tapeworm does its host.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Like the present Amtrak mess where only the BOS-WASH corridor is adequately funded and the rest of the nation deteriorates?

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

You betcha.

I think that's probably the most disgusting of recent (or so I think) political behaviors: If you can't kill a program you don't like, underfund it and then point to its failure as justification for your original view.