Obama at Saint Paul Union Depot

[Anderson]

President Obama Reveals 4-Year, $19 Billion Proposal for Trains

In a visit to St. Paul’s restored Union Depot, President Barack Obama outlined an ambitious $302 billion, 4-year investment plan for America’s roads, bridges, railways, and transit. $19 billion of that will go towards rail, with another $72 billion directed to transit. The President was in St. Paul to celebrate the renovation of Union Depot, which returned intercity passenger trains back downtown after more than 30 years. The restoration occurred as part of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program, which provides funding to projects of regional significance that generate positive economic development. Thanks to the TIGER program, Union Depot is being transformed from a dusty, overrun old building into a modern regional transit hub.

And while $600 million for intermodal projects is a pretty big deal, it was dwarfed by the $302 billion surface transportation plan, which includes a one-time infusion of $150 billion in revenue from corporate tax reform.

The President’s plan includes $19 billion in dedicated funding for rail programs. That would mean almost $5 billion each year for high performance passenger rail programs, with “a focus on improving the connections between key regional city pairs and high traffic corridors throughout the country.”

*sighs*

Right message, wrong messenger. However, it's nice to see this phrased a bit differently than "just" high-speed rail, which seems to be a concession to some of what Shuster was saying not too long ago (when he was praising the Keystones).

 

[beautifulplanet]

*sighs*

Right message, wrong messenger.

Many might wonder: So what would be the right messenger?

Of course some might think it would be great if the majority leader of the House of Representatives would have given that speech, or at least made that 4-year transportation funding proposal. Then possibly some members of his own party would have voted for the plan, and possibly most of the members of the minority party in the House as well. In case then the Senate would have voted in support of it, too, all the president would have needed to do was to sign the bill into law. Some might think that some more transportation advocacy and specifically rail advocacy is necessary though, before the majority leader of the House would give that speech and make that proposal, so currently it may seem to many like the president might have been one of the best messengers around for that message. Some might think: It's definitely better than no messenger, and this message not being out there.

 

[CHamilton]

Press coverage of the transportation proposal and related news, via Streetsblog USA

• More on Obama’s $302 Billion Transpo Funding Plan (The Hill, Next City, The Hill)
• Boxer Tells AASHTO to Forget About a Gas Tax Hike in an Election Year (The Hill)
• Sec. Foxx Announced Sixth TIGER Round, Worth $600M (The Trucker)
• Here’s the Tea Party Response to Obama’s Plan (KCSG)
• Members of Congress, Local Leaders Plea for Federal Investment (T4America)
• A Visual Reminder About How Bad the Transpo Funding Situation Really Is (Roll Call)
• Republican Dave Camp’s Tax Reform Proposal Has $126.5B for Transportation (The Hill)
• You Can Always Count on Biden to Love HSR, Even When No One Else Does (Capital Radio)

 

[RRUserious]

Extemely leery of jumping into any subject containing the name "Obama" because of the last 5 years where haters have created and hijacked so many threads. Just want to comment that SPUD is a ray of sunshine in that it shows capital stock being renovated. A tiny example of what the USA needs bigtime.

 

[beautifulplanet]

RRUserious, thank you for your post (though bring leery, and some might say for an apparently very valid reason).

For many it might be encouraging to read about the ray of sunshine, and that there are more and more who seem to think that more investment would be beneficial.