Press
Putting High-speed Rail on the Right Track
01.27.2010
The following is an excerpt from Mark Reutter’s op-ed in today’s Tampa Tribune:
The Obama administration will soon be announcing which states will be awarded funds from the $8 billion stimulus pot dedicated for high-speed rail (HSR) development.
Right now, 259 applications valued at $57 billion are chasing the recovery plan money. The administration’s decision to devote considerable resources to developing HSR underscores its commitment to bring bullet trains to the United States. But unless it makes the right decisions about where to put the money and what policies to follow, the new enthusiasm for HSR could be frittered away.
The choice that the Obama administration and Congress face is simple: modest incrementalism versus a truly transformative vision. The core problem is the apparent willingness of Obama transportation officials to use stimulus money to finance many small projects, such as adding sidings to existing railroad lines, to permit somewhat faster speeds by conventional Amtrak trains.
Read the full column at The Tampa Tribune.
