NEWS
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Stu Nicholson
Date: August 2, 2005
(614) 644-0513
On The Right Track:
Congress Takes Steps To Invest In U.S. Rails
(An op-ed by ORDC Executive Director James Seney)
“What part of what I’m saying do you not understand?” That’s a question many of us who advocate for improved passenger and freight rail transportation have been asking our leaders of both parties in Washington for decades. But 2005 may be the beginning of the end of seeking answers to that frustrating query that would usually elicit blank stares or half-baked solutions. At last, there is significant movement underway in Congress to meet what I believe is America’s most pressing transportation challenge.
Legislation is now working its way through both Houses of Congress that would finally establish a national railroad development and funding policy toward both passenger and freight movement: something this most industrialized of nations has hasn’t had since President Abraham Lincoln commissioned the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. This legislation also aims to finally deal with the nagging and endless debate over reforming and funding Amtrak.
Within the past two months, Congressman Steve Latourette (R-Ohio) has introduced two bills: HR-1630 and HR 1631 in the House. Just this past Wednesday, Senator Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) introduced the Rail Passenger Investment and Improvement Act. There are some differences between the Latourette and Lott bills, but none would seem to be beyond resolution. And though details of all three bills are yet to be worked out fully in Committee, allow me to say that they are the most encouraging and promising developments on this issue many of us can remember. We believe both Latourette and Lott are (you’ll forgive the pun) “on the right track.”
Long story made short: both bills would establish a
first-ever national funding mechanism for what are a growing number of state
and regional rail projects that would establish passenger rail service in
short-haul corridors. These projects
would also greatly expand existing rail corridors to provide greater capacity
for moving the crush of increasing freight traffic that threatens to overwhelm
our highway and air freight systems.
The Ohio Rail Development Commission has been advancing such a project for almost three years, despite an almost total absence of a federal funding formula. The Ohio & Lake Erie Regional Rail / Ohio Hub Plan would establish an 860-mile network of high-speed passenger trains serving high-density, short-haul travel corridors in Ohio and several adjoining states and the Canadian province of Ontario. Additionally, it would greatly expand capacity for the freight railroads by adding more tracks, relieving rail and highway bottlenecks and improving signal and dispatching systems. Ohio is not alone in this effort. At least 24 other states are either working on similar plans or are actually funding and facilitating the operation of passenger and freight trains.
What these plans have historically lacked is the same kind
of federal support that has been directed traditionally at highways and
commercial aviation. While we are not in
a position to endorse specific legislation, we nonetheless have an historic
opportunity to make significant change and avert what is a growing
transportation crisis that will deeply impact our national and state
economies. We have a choice to move
forward and make that impact a positive one: , or
do nothing and ensure that a bad situation gets much worse.
With the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials predicting a better than doubling of overall freight traffic over the next twenty years, it doesn’t take a PhD to see what that means for the traffic we drive in, the air we breathe and ultimately our jobs, income and personal mobility. Now, pour that troubling news into a barrel of oil that is increasing beyond $60 dollars a barrel and gasoline that drains better than $2.25 a gallon from our wallets. By doing nothing, at the very least, we can stop calling them gas pumps and renaming them “wallet vacuums”. Clearly, we need a better answer.
The Latourette and Lott bills both address maintaining a national passenger rail system as well as long-term and needed reform of and funding for Amtrak. We applaud the recognition of this need, but saving and reforming Amtrak is not the only issue here. Thankfully, both Cong. Latourette and Sen. Lott have recognized the larger issue of redeveloping our overall national rail system for moving both people and freight.
The Latourette and Lott bills may help guide us to a better solution. We urge the members of Congress and the Bush Administration to take this opportunity to take significant and positive action. Congressman Latourette and Senator Lott are reportedly already talking over each other’s bills and seem willing to work together toward a common goal. The rest of official Washington needs to join the discussion and put this issue on the fast track to a sensible solution.
(The Ohio Rail Development Commission is an independent agency operating within the Ohio Department of Transportation. ORDC is responsible for economic development through the improvement and expansion of passenger and freight rail service, railroad grade crossing safety and rail travel & tourism issues. For more information about what ORDC does for Ohio, visit our website at http://www.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/)