November « 2008 « The Transport Politic

Post-Thanksgiving New York News

November 30th, 2008 |

The Thanksgiving Holiday doesn’t exactly lend itself to transportation news; it’s a sedentary period, with people far more interested in eating and shopping than getting around. We haven’t updated this blog for the past week because there’s been almost nothing happening in our particular realm. But the next three weeks leading to Christmas and New Year’s will be an interesting period. Will the Obama Administration-elect be more specific in its policy proposals? Will Congress consider John Kerry’s High-Speed Rail Bill? Will transit systems nationwide be able to handle the oncoming fiscal crisis?

We’ll be considering all of these issues over the next

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The Airport-Transit Connection

November 24th, 2008 |

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Airport-transit connections. Click to enlarge.

Direct connections to airports have almost always played a major role in the development of transit systems. For the business and political leaders who typically take the most important roles in deciding how money for new mass transit investments will be used, a one-seat ride between downtown and the airport often takes highest priority.

There is little doubt that the primacy given to rail connections to airports is unjust from the socio-economic perspective. After all, because of the cost of flying, most people needing to get to and from airports are wealthy. Choosing to invest in

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Morning Updates – More Administration News

November 24th, 2008 |

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The not-yet-in-power Obama Administration is showing that it has a strong interest in averting the increasing problems for the nation’s transportation funding. Today on the Change.gov blog (the official website of the Administration-in-waiting), there was a further emphasis on the President-elect’s committment to taking advantage of the economic crisis to sponsor vast increases in infrastructure funding. The blog specifically quotes three individuals who have ideas for how to use the economic stimulus money, and all three point to infrastructure spending as being a necessary and major component. Most importantly, the blog post includes the comments of a man from Staten Island

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Obama Stimulus; HSR in UK Advances; BART Expansion Passes; LA Orange Line to Become LRT?

November 23rd, 2008 |

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Biggest news of the weekend is Barack Obama’s new economic stimulus plan, which proposes creating 2.5 million jobs in infrastructure and alternative energy solutions. Though the specifics have not yet been worked out, the plan would, in the current plan, be passed almost as soon as he entered office – he would hand it over to Congress before he moved into the White House. Look for the bill to be in the $300 billion range, and look for it to provide specific funds for mass transit – and perhaps high-speed rail.

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Meanwhile, the plans for high-speed rail links in the United

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