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BIG RAIL
by Ryan Avent
As a big supporter of rail and transit, the creation of the OneRail coalition is quite heartening. It is, in a nutshell, a group of rail advocacy organizations which have banded together to lobby for rail investment. The Hill reports:
Several trade and issue advocacy groups are part of OneRail, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Amtrak, the American Short Line & Regional Railroad Association, the Association of American Railroads, and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership.
If I have a complaint, it's this: a broader coalition is necessary. When highway funding is on the table, the heavies get into the game—the oil companies, automobile companies, and chambers of commerce. Rail activities should also work to exploit the economic spillovers generated by rail investments. Transit-oriented development has proven lucrative for city governments, as well as many commercial and residential developers. Producers of products from steel, to electric and diesel engines, to upholstery could benefit from new transit projects. Power companies, which helped develop the first generation of streetcar networks a century ago, might conceivably benefit from an increase in electricity demand or from the grid improvements that could accompany creation of improved national rail corridors.
The point is this—rail investment is good environmental, energy, and economic policy, but it's also good business. And if OneRail can get business on board, then we can expect real legislative progress.
COMMENTS (6)
Ryan,
on topic: I fully agree. onrail seems like a good first step for a more comprehensive rail lobby, but I'd like to see more integration with urban transit.
off topic: not sure what text editor you're using but your dashes come out as error symbols in google reader.
Posted by: sarah | January 26, 2009 12:23 PM
Where's the Amalgamated Transit Union? What about the Teamsters who now represent the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers? What about the Laborers' and the IBEW, whose members would most likely be doing the infrstructuring?
Posted by: Anonymous | January 26, 2009 12:37 PM
Nobody asked me but...
Folks the last mile of travel can not be done with mass transit in "burbia" as it is now constructed. Period. End of story. To change that would require double digits of trillions of dollars. And it ain't gonna happen
We have what we have.
We need to convert what we have to something else. To maximize though put I would suggest something like building parking structures over strategic on/off ramps and running a "rail" down the middle of all our urban/suburban highways. And while we are at it additional electrical grid is also a good use of these already cleared paths and air rights. Think "Trail & Node" as opposed to hub & spoke. And when I say "rail", I use the term generically. "Modern" rail has more in common with the oxcart than just it's gage. The weight of these "cars" is ridiculous for stop & starts, lighten up on the inertia would ya. Parallel rails which require alignments are horse & buggy technology. I won't go into all the asininities of "modern rail", the list is too long, let's just say, very little has changed in a century and it is not for want of ideas. We need a new form of extrememly lightweight, stiff [the car body should eliminate much of the need for stiff/heavy truss support]
http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/odgyro.Html
Instead of true progress, most rail transportation projects are decided by lawyers and "transportation experts". "Transportation experts" are guys that know how to clamp tight to the government teat while slagging the same old stuff. In Seattle Greg Nickels who killed the monorail by putting it up for a vote every chance he got, while demanding expensive studies that delved 80 years into the future, is such a "transportation expert" and oddly enough, he worked for such a firm of "transportation experts" and they came up with...wait for it...conventional rail, who's behemoth size, requires behemoth tracks and since nobody wants behemoth tracks down their street, they needed behemoth tunnels, with a behemoth price tag. One more note about Greg Nickels, every transportation project he wants requires no studies at all...hmmmm!
Such is the work of lawyers and "transportation experts" or do you say lobbyist? What is needed is new approach, that takes what we have and converts it over time.
Those parking structures built over strategic on ramps that I talk about above could have grocery stores, cleaners, day care, bakeries and other shops above that now require a special daily trip. People would use mass transit, not because it "was good for them", or "good for the environment", but because it saved them time and made their lives better.
They'd drive their electric cars to the local "node", drop off their cleaning, go down to the heated station and wait moments for an automated lightweight vehicle to whisk them to work, they'd return after work, get some fresh bread, produce and pick up their clean clothes, maybe stop for coffee or drinks with friends and get in their electric vehicle go home. Rentable electric cars should be at all nodes that need them.
Instead of sending lawyers, "experts" and money, we need to put the minds of science and progress to work. Right now there is a glut of scientific talent sitting on the sidelines. The Manhattan project was not the work of, nor was it run by...conventional bomb makers, it was people new to the business and they took multiple new paths that led to success [depending how you define the term].
- S Brennan 20 Jan 09
Posted by: S Brennan | January 26, 2009 1:00 PM
As a small-business type dude, I would like to see our associations support public transportation and taxes to pay for it.
Posted by: Doug | January 26, 2009 1:23 PM
What Ryan fails to discuss is the utter lack of economic viability in any of his posts.
It's more "Gee, wouldn't it be great if ____________________(insert liberal dreamlist of choice).
Posted by: El Viajero | January 26, 2009 1:40 PM
I'm so happy about this. America Bahn, here we come!
Posted by: rail enthusiast | January 26, 2009 6:13 PM