[Via Chicago]

from a couple months ago....

Originally Posted by via chicago

sorry but youre really naive. this guy has zero interest in expanding public transit. we'll be lucky if we continue to get any federal funds, period.

Originally Posted by ardecila

It's not that clear-cut. There are three questions here - what does Trump personally think, what do his shadowy advisors think, and what can he actually accomplish given Congress?

Trump himself doesn't give a flying you-know-what about the dogma of the Republican platform. He will do what works best with his voters to show them that he is a builder president. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly mentioned that America needs to make more investments in intercity rail. This cuts in the face of Republican dogma; Trump doesn't care. High-speed rail is sexy and marketable in a way that regular buses, light rail, and subways are not, so I expect Trump to throw his support behind it. Likewise, an airport express train as proposed in Chicago and New York (and now LA) definitely falls on the "sexy" side of the ledger, so I don't see why Trump wouldn't support them.

Trump's advisors are a bit of an unknown - I doubt Steve Bannon would support investments in rail or public transit, but I also think transportation policy is small potatoes to him - he's more concerned with foreign relations. However, Jared Kushner seems to be the guy for domestic policy, and he is a pretty savvy New York developer like Trump who no doubt understands the importance of public transportation and intercity rail.

Congressional Republicans are just as hostile to intercity rail and public transit as they have always been, but the fact that Trump is also a Republican means that the leadership in Congress will not show the same obstructionism to Trump that they did to Obama.

hate to say i told you so. but told you so.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...328-story.html

Trump 'skinny budget' would starve Chicago transit: officials

Transportation expert Yonah Freemark said that the Chicago area, with its large network of mass transit and freight rail, may be one of the worst hit in the nation in terms of cuts under the proposal.

The proposal would end federal support for Amtrak's long-distance train service and future funding for new transit projects. Future investments for new transit projects "would be funded by the localities that use and benefit from these localized projects," the budget blueprint states.

Funding for highways, like federal money for maintenance received by the Illinois Department of Transportation, would be unaffected, said Freemark, who writes the blog the Transport Politic.

The budget proposal "terminates federal support for Amtrak's long-distance train services, which have long been inefficient and incur the vast majority of Amtrak's operating losses." The proposal said the Amtrak cuts would allow the agency to focus on better managing its state-supported and Northeast Corridor train services.

The effect of this cut would be to reduce by a quarter the number of Amtrak trains that come into Chicago's Union Station, according to Audrey Wennink, director of transportation for the Metropolitan Planning Council, a nonprofit research group. State-supported trains like the Hiawatha to Milwaukee and the Lincoln Service to Springfield would remain, though their ridership could get hurt by the loss of the long-distance trains with their connections.

...the cuts would leave in doubt a proposal that has been discussed for decades to extend the Red Line into what advocates call a "transit desert" south of 95th Street.

To help fund past projects, the CTA has used federal grants under the New Starts and the TIGER grant programs, both at risk under the proposal, Freemark said. The Create program to unclog rail traffic with new underpasses, overpasses and other upgrades also has used TIGER money.
...

The cuts also would affect Metra's ability to spend on new capital projects, like new locomotives. The commuter rail agency needs $12 billion over the next 10 years to achieve and maintain the system in a state of good repair, and it anticipates getting about a fourth from federal sources, said Metra CEO Don Orseno. Metra is already hurting from the lack of a state capital bill, Orseno has said.