Rail: Fail

One measure of American political dysfunction is the not-so-slow collapse of infrastructure during the last four decades, including passenger rail service, an area where the U.S. is dead last versus all its economic rivals.

"In the 1960, the United States had an extensive network of passenger rail trains. All the major cities in the Midwest and South were linked by regular train service. You could get service on smaller routes, like the one from Boise, Idaho, to Portland, Oregon, three times a day. Then a lot of lines got shut down in the late 1960s and 1970s, as this animation shows."

(Maps from the National Association of Railway Passengers and Malcolm Kenton. Animation by Joss Fong)

Source: Watch American passenger rail shrivel up and die in this animated map by Timothy B. Lee (Vox).

Resource: National Association of Railroad Passengers

It'll pass Congress in a New York minute

Just call it the, I dunno, Ronald Reagan National System of Interstate and Defense Highspeed Rail.

With a new plan for a high-speed system, Amtrak execs hope they can revive both American rail and American cities: Why High-Speed Rail Could Spur a Golden Age in the Northeast by Yoni Appelbaum (The Atlantic)

Transportation: 1965? When will the US start spending again on infrastructure?

Here's an excellent example of celebrity in service to reform:

Press Release: Public Transit Projects Create More Jobs than Highways

(Washington DC 2010-09-02) New data released today by the Transportation Equity Network reveals that investment in public transit can create hundreds of thousands more jobs than highway projects.

More Transit Equals More Jobs examines official project lists from 20 federally authorized Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and concludes that “if [they] shifted 50 percent of their highway funds to transit, they would generate an additional 184,801 jobs over a five-year period without spending any more money.”

“This report reveals just how much more bang we can get for our buck if we invest in transit,” said Dan Smith, a transportation associate for U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG). “Transit provides important benefits to communities and, with unemployment so high, this is data that should not be ignored.”

Previous studies, including examinations of federal Recovery Act spending, have consistently found that public transportation creates more jobs than highways. Investment in public transit tends to be more labor-intensive than highway projects because the work is generally more complex, involves the purchase and maintenance of vehicles, and requires much less spending on land acquisition.

More Transit Equals More Jobs makes a broad case for larger investments in our public transit systems. More money for transit not only means more jobs but would additionally lead to less traffic congestion, hazardous pollution, and global warming emissions. # # #

U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization. For more information visit http://www.uspirg.org.

Transportation: The Dreams of the California High-Speed Rail Authority

A visual tour of the projected California High Speed Rail system:
"Updated business plan provides us with an opportunity to be even more competitive as we go after federal stimulus dollars." - Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani at January 11 legislative hearing.

Clip File: Bullet Trains for America?

"The Obama administration has revived the dream of building high-speed rail lines to rival those of Japan and Europe, but the tracks are littered with political and financial obstacles." -- Bullet Trains for America? by Mark Reutter (The Wilson Quarterly)