Category: President

Categories
President

The President-Elect Addresses Transit – Sort of.

Today, the Obama team responded to a question asked on its Change.gov website:

“Will transit and intercity rail projects be a major component of the infrastructure stimulus package, rather than focusing on highway projects?”
– John B, Chicago

Here’s the response given by incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in a video:

“Yes, John, transit and intercity rail projects will be a major component of the President-elect’s infrastructure program. Not only will they provide jobs to help get this economy moving again, but they’ll reduce our dependence on foreign oil, cut the amount of carbon in our atmosphere, clean our air, and more importantly, improve the quality of life for millions of Americans.”

This is the first direct response from the incoming administration on transit issues, and we’re happy to hear that it’s a positive one. This response was clearly devoid of specifics – not surprising considering the quite superficial nature of all the answers given, but at least it’s something!

We’ll see soon enough whether the recommendations developed by Congressman Oberstar will be endorsed by the White House, but this response is a hopeful signal.

Categories
Finance President

Warning: We Can't Let the Stimulus Pass Us By

As Robert over at the California High Speed Rail Blog put it this morning, President-elect Barack Obama’s Saturday address again emphasized “roads and bridges” as the basis for stimulus investment and made no mention of public transit or rail funding in the package that will be released in the next few weeks. Once again, we have been disappointed by a candidate who claimed during the campaign to be interested in rebuilding our cities and improving Amtrak.

The incoming administration’s rhetoric – “post-ideological” or “anti-ideological” – is coming dangerously close to meaning nothing more than a continuation of existing policy. The administration’s marked unwillingness to pronounce itself in favor of any big idea, whether national health care, a carbon tax, or in our case, high-speed rail or transit investment, is not “pragmatic,” the word Mr. Obama’s proponents use to defend the President-elect’s conservatism. It is simply conservative.

There are signs that the big changes will come in the transportation bill, due for reauthorization this year, and whose writing is under the guidance of transit-friendly Congressmen Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and James Oberstar (D-MN).

But what is Mr. Obama, with the biggest bully-pulpit in the world, doing to demonstrate his commitment to transit or to the renewal of our degenerated urban areas? When are we going to hear him argue that we have a responsibility to use these stimulus funds responsibly, rather that for the same wasteful, environmentally-destructive highway projects we’ve been sponsoring for more than fifty years? When is public transportation going to get a real chance in the United States?

The stimulus bill is expected to cost American taxpayers upwards of $700 billion. It would be quite a disappointment if the majority of that money simply went to rebuilding highways.

Categories
President

Ray Lahood as Transportation Secretary?

The New York Times is reporting that Ray LaHood, a Republican congressman from Illinois, is at the top of the list for considerations for Transportation Secretary.

First comment: what does this say about President-elect Obama’s interest in transporation if he’s willing to put a Republican in the top spot here? Does this mean that the answers to all transportation questions can be found at the bipartisan level? We would answer no, considering years-long opposition from Republicans to financing transit and intercity rail. But we hope that Mr. Obama sees something else in Mr. LaHood.

Mr. LaHood’s voting record on environmental and transportation issues has been good, which indicates that he won’t stand in the way of more funding for the issues we care about here.

And yet, this man, who hasn’t ever made a major stand for transportation issues, doesn’t seem like the best choice for a cabinet position at the transportation department. Prove us wrong.

Categories
High-Speed Rail President

New HSR-NEC

We here at the transport politic sure are a little upset about our inability to find out more information about what happened at the news conference that took place today at Penn Station. We told you on Friday that there was going to be a news conference between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters to discuss the potential for a second Northeast Corridor for the sole purposes of running high-speed trains, and indeed, Am New York reports that there was such a news conference. But we haven’t been able to find any official announcements on the ‘net, so it’s a little unclear how much to believe and how much to report.

That said, The Washington Times talked to “congressional transportation leaders” who described that what Ms. Peters was indeed announcing was the release of a request for proposals (RFP) for private corporations to build a new high-speed line between Washington and New York that would allow trains to make the trip in less than two hours. Specifically, the DOT is preparing for a $30-40 billion project, on par with the California High-Speed Rail proposal. A private company would be asked to come up with a plan, and then Congress could vote on whether it wanted to fund it, in 2010 or 2011. We wish we could be less vague.

These “leaders” also suggested that the other projects up for consideration for future high-speed rail service (in addition to California) were a north-south line in Florida, a connector between Portland and Seattle, a series of Midwest corridors emanating from Chicago, and the Texas Triangle project.

Obviously, we’ll keep you up to date when real news comes in.

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In other news, President-elect Barack Obama is going to ride to the inauguration in a train! The event will begin with an event in Philadelphia, then proceed with a pickup of Vice President-elect Joe Biden in Wilmington, follow with a second event in Baltimore, and conclude with an arrival at Washington’s Union Station.

OK, so maybe he will be a pro-rail president after all?

Categories
New York President

Score Another One for New York City

The New York Post reports that Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión will head President-Elect Barack Obama’s Office for Urban Policy. This is the second New Yorker picked for a big cabinet position related to urban policy, after the announcement of Shaun Donovan for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development on Saturday.

The Office for Urban Policy will serve as a clearinghouse in the administration for working on city issues, and seems likely to be positioned to work closely with HUD and with the Department of Transportation (whose Secretary-designate has not yet been named). As a result, Mr. Carrión will play an important role in coordinating policy related to transit-oriented development, for instance.

Mr. Carrión’s record on transportation has been good. Even though he represents the Bronx, he strongly supported Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan last year, which if it had been passed by the New York Assembly, would have dramatically increased transit funding by enforcing a toll in Manhattan below 60th Street. This position demonstrates Mr. Carrión’s interest in advancing the interests of transit users above automobile drivers, and suggests he’ll be a good proponent of non-automobile transportation in the administration.

Of course, his position as the president of the Bronx, one of the nation’s most transit-dependent counties, automatically puts Mr. Carrión into the category of politicians-who-are-likely-to-do-good.