High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program (USA)

[mhays]

Washington state rail is getting another $160,000,000 thanks to the new Midwest governors. Not to pour salt on the wound, but that's a real boost for us. The Eugene-Portland-Seattle-Vancouver route is already a big success, with trains often 100% full, even at slow speeds.

[202_Cyclist]

As Acela turns 10, Amtrak envisions high-speed rail expansion

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 10, 2010

"Promptly at 1 p.m., a sleek Acela Express train glided out of Union Station on a recent weekday packed with white-collar workers tapping away on laptops connected to the train's wireless Internet service.

Amtrak launched the nation's most advanced high-speed rail service a decade ago Saturday, and after a herky-jerky start, Acela has come of age as a popular alternative to flights or traversing Interstate 95 along the busy Northeast Corridor.

Acela trains carried more than 3.2 million passengers in fiscal 2010, according to Amtrak. An average of about 72 percent of the train's 300 seats were sold on peak segments and 60 percent on all segments - figures that have improved substantially over the past five years, according to data from the rail agency..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...id=dynamiclead

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by mhays

Washington state rail is getting another $160,000,000 thanks to the new Midwest governors. Not to pour salt on the wound, but that's a real boost for us. The Eugene-Portland-Seattle-Vancouver route is already a big success, with trains often 100% full, even at slow speeds.

Yeah, its great news. However, I haven't heard any news yet about this besides whats on this forum. Wonder when we'll get any additional details as to what they might fund with it.

[seaskyfan]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

Yeah, its great news. However, I haven't heard any news yet about this besides whats on this forum. Wonder when we'll get any additional details as to what they might fund with it.

According to WA DOT they're using it to fund more of the projects included in their initial proposal - no specific details yet. Here's a link to the project website:

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Funding/stim...sengerrail.htm

[202_Cyclist]

Calif. Amtrak ridership rising on state trains

Michael Cabanatuan
SF Chronicle
Wednesday, January 5, 2011

"While everyone's talking about high-speed rail, more Californians are hopping aboard Amtrak's state-subsidized intercity passenger trains, which typically travel slower than 80 mph.

After the economy stalled ridership of California's three intercity routes - the Capitol Corridor, San Joaquin and Pacific Surfliner - for a few years, the state-funded lines are again gaining ridership, and even setting records.


Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle
Barton Saunders and son Hayden, 3, get ready to leave Emeryville for an Amtrak train trip to Sacramento.

All three of the lines, part of the national Amtrak system, rank among the nation's five busiest passenger rail corridors. The Pacific Surfliner, which runs between San Diego and San Luis Obispo, is the nation's second busiest behind the Northeast Corridor, the nation's most-developed rail route. The San Jose-to-Auburn Capitol Corridor is the third most-ridden route, and the San Joaquin, which runs between Oakland and Bakersfield, comes in No. 5...."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BAMU1GU16Q.DTL

[M II A II R II K]

State Republican budget could halt proposed passenger trains


http://www.desmoinesregister.com/art...ssenger-trains

Plans for daily passenger train service between Iowa City and Chicago could be permanently derailed under a budget bill proposed by Iowa House Republicans. The Republican-sponsored budget package would not provide any state money needed to establish and subsidize operations for the route, almost certainly forcing the Iowa Department of Transportation to return a federal grant of $81.4 million already awarded for the passenger train project.

State Rep. Scott Raecker, an Urbandale Republican who will be chairman the Iowa House Appropriations Committee, said he is reluctant to provide taxpayer money for passenger train service, especially because of a projected need for ongoing government subsidies to run the train in future years. "We have to be cautious about making out-year commitments before we can fund things like K-12 education, which is $231 million short," he said.

However, Raecker said he anticipates that the Iowa City to Chicago trains "will be a point of discussion and debate as we move through the process, whether or not that should or should not remain in the bill." The Iowa Legislature, under past Democratic control in both chambers, committed $10 million for Iowa's share of the project. Lawmakers have been asked to appropriate an additional $10 million in startup costs. In addition, state officials estimated it would require $3 million annually in Iowa taxpayer subsidies to keep the trains running to Iowa City.

[sammyg]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

State Republican budget could halt proposed passenger trains


http://www.desmoinesregister.com/art...ssenger-trains

Wow, only 3 million a year? That's probably less than the combined salaries of the Iowa state legislature.

[Busy Bee]

Also a hell out a lot less than subsidizing the costs associated with absurd and unsustainable land uses w/ outrages utilities and transportation infrastructure all payed by taxpayers. Godforbid an alternative transportation program. But they just don't and won't see it that way do they. Not until it's too late. Head-in-ass fools.

[DJM19]

Methinks he is [very hypocritically] ignoring the fact that roads are subsidized so much more than 3 million, but they would never dream of cutting it from the budget.

[slayerhk47]

Originally Posted by sammyg

Wow, only 3 million a year? That's probably less than the combined salaries of the Iowa state legislature.

In wisconsin it would have been about 7 million a year to operate the rail line. Thats roughly 1.25 from each wisconsinite a year. Thats 1 DOLLAR and 25 CENTS.

Clearly that is too much to ask to have thousands of new jobs and awesome train systems.

[JDRCRASH]

I've said it before and i'll say it again.....we're able to extend tax breaks for the wealthiest americans, but we can't use even a FRACTION of that for HSR.

This is truly embarrassing.

[jpIllInoIs]

As a life long Midwesterner. I am truly embarrassed and ashamed of our short sighted neighbors of Wisc and now Iowa. Proving once and for all that the Midwest is full of hayseeds and hypocrites.

What is most comical is that University of Iowa in Iowa City enjoys 35% of its freshman admissions from the State of Illinois:
From UI website Student Profiles:

First Year Student.
2,099 men (46%)
2,458 women (54%)
4,557 Total

Top feeder states:
Illinois 1,588 students
Minnesota 152 students
Wisconsin 96 students
California 43 students
Missouri 27 students
Texas 21 students
Florida 19 students
Nebraska 18 students
Michigan 17 students
Ohio 13 students


And even more ridiculous is that THE TOP 20 out of State feeder high schools are all from the Chicago suburbs.


Top out-of-state feeder schools:
Stevenson (Lincolnshire, Ill.) 44 students
Neuqua Valley (Naperville, Ill.) 40 students
Loyola Academy (Wilmette, Ill.) 33 students
Deerfield (Ill.) 32 students
Naperville North (Ill.) 30 students
Lyons Township (LaGrange, Ill.) 29 students
Warren Township (Gurnee, Ill.) 28 students
Hinsdale Central (Ill.) 27 students
Fremd (Palatine, Ill.) 25 students
W-W South (Wheaton, Ill.) 25 students
Sandburg (Orland Park, Ill.) 23 students
Saint Viator (Arlington Heights, Ill.) 22 students
J.B. Conant (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) 21 students
Marist (Chicago, Ill.) 21 students
New Trier (Winnetka, Ill.) 20 students
Barrington Community (Ill.) 20 students
Maine South (Park Ridge, Ill.) 20 students
Buffalo Grove (Ill.) 19 students
Glenbrook North (Northbrook, Ill.) 19 students
Glenbrook South (Glenview, Ill.) 19 students

Isn't the train supposed to run from Chicago to Iowa City with a stop in Naperville. Gee you can see why any PRUDENT Iowa politician would want to put a cork in that $3 million expenditure on trains.

[Busy Bee]

Hmmm... ideology perhaps?

[sammyg]

So now that Wisconsin, Ohio, and possibly Iowa and Florida have cancelled their projects, what's left? Illinois, California, Washington/Oregon and North Carolina?

[k1052]

Originally Posted by sammyg

So now that Wisconsin, Ohio, and possibly Iowa and Florida have cancelled their projects, what's left? Illinois, California, Washington/Oregon and North Carolina?

Michigan is moving ahead too, though they could use another $140M to fully fund their request. The Wolverine is a popular service and should be upgraded. That the state strongly supports it should also weigh in their favor if IA or FL doesn't want the money.

The rest of the cash should be poured into CA HSR. Once we have a real operating HSR system the other states might finally come to the conclusion that there is something to this.

[Busy Bee]

^ Cause lord knows, even today, very very few of Midwesterners, let alone Americans, I would presume have traveled on HSR in Europe and Asia... If they had in vast numbers I think we'd have more serious public calls for such service. As I see it, the appetite has yet been wet, and it will take a real, tangible, living, breathing, seeable, touchable true-HSR train rolling on our own soil and redefining travel for Americans to "get it" in great quantity.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

Iowa Republican budget could halt proposed passenger trains

.....

[bobdreamz]

I'm truly concerned at this point that our new Governor Scott of Florida will reject HSR if a report he is waiting on next month doesn't suit his figures. He basically doesn't mind HSR as long as Florida doesn't have to pay for any of it at this time however there is tremendous pressure from businesses to go forward with the project.
If he rejects it CA will probably wind up with our $2.4 billion.

[JDRCRASH]

Wait, Florida could be cancelled, too? While that may help us in CA, it doesn't excuse the short-sighted thinking by these idiots.

[bobdreamz]

^ JDR, Governor Scott made this guy part of his transition team as a transportation advisor:

Robert Poole, President of the Reason Foundation. He and others at the Reason Foundation have published detailed attacks on the Los Angeles MTA’s rail projects and on transit investments in general. Poole came to Phoenix before the 1997 referendum to attack the proposed regional transit system at seminars and on the radio. This visit created negative coverage in several local media outlets, including the Arizona Republic, which was otherwise in favor of the project.

also a Quote from a Orlando Sun Sentinel article with the full link provided below :

Scott has been skeptical of the plan, and in a brief discussion with reporters from the Miami Herald on Thursday he said he was waiting for another study — possibly completed next month — before deciding what to do about it.
"At that point, I would go through and see what the feasibility is and what the cost to the state will be," Scott said.
Scott also said he would talk to potential bidders about possibly funding part of the train. Attempts to reach the governor's office for further comment were unsuccessful.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...,5295795.story

This is what happens when you vote in Repukes to office!