TW: Crisis breeds opportunity, the phrase uttered by terrified Republicans but to me truism if used properly. Our rail networks are grossly underfunded and have been since cars took over the hearts of consumers and fiscal minds of our governments. Due to the exigencies of this current Great Contraction and in a fit of Keynesian inspiration, the Obama administration is charging ahead with the most aggressive funding for rail in decades.
The plan is not a panacea, $8 billion gives rail a strong shove forward but does not fund the deca-billions needed to get the network up to where it should be. However, if our rails can start to offer travel times lower than achievable by car, which is not frequently the current case, then we should be headed in the right direction.
From Chicago Tribune:
"Year after year, high-speed rail in the U.S. has been a popular idea that never left the station because of a lack of political will. All that changed Thursday.
Passenger trains traveling at 110 m.p.h.—arriving in Chicago from St. Louis in under four hours—could be operating in three or four years after Obama allocated $8 billion in federal stimulus money to begin building a national high-speed rail system...
Ten high-speed rail corridors were selected as high-priority projects, including a nine-state Midwestern network that will have routes radiating 3,000 miles across the region from a rail hub in Chicago.The stimulus funding is backed up by a pledge of an additional $1 billion annually for five years for states to improve passenger rail and offer the public a more attractive alternative to the hassles of driving and flying.
...Faster trains passing through Chicago could be operating as soon as 2012 to 2014 to Milwaukee and Madison, Wis., on one corridor and Detroit and Pontiac, Mich., on another... The money for the shovel-ready projects will be awarded this summer, and work would begin immediately.
In laying out a strategic plan for high-speed rail, Obama stressed repairing existing rail infrastructure to improve travel times and increase the frequencies of service provided on routes.
Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin are working with Amtrak to increase train speeds from the 79 m.p.h. top speed in most locations to 110 m.p.h., which is the maximum that can be safely handled by Amtrak's existing locomotives and coaches.
"We are decades behind Europe and Asia in developing high-speed infrastructure, but today marked an exciting, huge step," said Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. "Having a president who fully understands how critical this is to our future is a real game-changer."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-high-speed-rail-17-apr17,0,1876557.story
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