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It has been nearly 19 years since this organization was founded as the Northeast Corridor Initiative in Boston as a coalition of business, government, labor, environmental, and academic leaders, in an effort to reverse and overcome a decade-long White House prohibition on the start of work on the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project (NECIP) first approved by Congress, during the Administration of President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970’s.
As some of you may know, in 1990-1991 at the invitation of White House Office of Management and Budget Director Dick Darman, who just this week passed away from leukemia at age 64, NCI directors including former Rhode Island Gov. J. Joseph Garrahy, former New York Power Authority Chairman and CEO Richard M. Flynn, New Hampshire industrialist and major Republican fund-raiser the late Robert Pullman, and our then-executive director Lincoln Chafee -- later a United States Senator from Rhode Island – plus myself and a few others visited the White House on three separate occasions to negotiate the release of $125 million in embargoed funds that had been authorized for the construction of NECIP.
These negotiations bore fruit in late September 1991, and President George Bush agreed to end his Administration’s blockage of the project. Work began almost immediately by Amtrak under the leadership of its legendary Chairman and CEO W. Graham Claytor, Jr., and by 1999 the project was completed, resulting in a dramatic reduction in commercial ground travel time between Boston and New York to 3-_ hours, down from the previous 5-6. This project, which electrified the rails between New Haven and Boston allowing for fully-electric service along the entire length of the Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston, was the most significant transportation improvement project in the Northeast since the completion of the Interstate Highway System in the 1960’s.
We tell this story not simply to boast – although we are proud that a handful of citizens was able to overcome what an army of lobbyists had blocked for a decade and more --- but because we want you to understand the way this victory was achieved, because that directly relates to why we are here today.
What we did then, and what the American people must do now, is to weld together a bi-partisan coalition of citizens across this country and get America moving again.
When we went to the White House, we went neither as Democrats --- although Gov. Garrahy was a long-serving liberal Democrat, and Dick Flynn, the son of Boss Flynn of the Bronx who placed Franklin D. Roosevelt’s name in nomination at the Democratic National Convention of 1932, was himself a leading party activist for decades; we went not as Republicans, although Lincoln Chaffee bears the name of one of America’s leading Republican families, and even though Robert Pullman was the key GOP fund-raiser for George H.W. Bush in New Hampshire in 1988, and a powerhouse nationally in the Republican Party.
We went not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans, acting very much in that special can-do American spirit witnessed by Frenchman Alexis DeTocqueville in his visits to America in the early part of the19th century.
I believe that here, in St. Louis, at the start of this intensive and important Presidential election year of 2008, we must once again undertake to create a bipartisan national coalition not simply to lobby for more money for trains, or highways, or airports, or any other single mode, but to organize and implement a new national commitment, irrespective of political party or ideology, to ask our Presidential contenders to put the crisis in American transportation squarely on the election-year agenda and demand that, this time, we create a comprehensive program to design, fund, build, and operate a fully-integrated multi-modal transportation system that is once again the best in the world. We had that once; we can do it again; but we must make sure that attention is paid.
It is my belief, shared by many others, that the people are well ahead of the politicians on this matter. A gas tax that has been frozen for nearly two decades cannot be expected to repair the system that has been allowed to languish for that long and longer. I believe it is better to tax ourselves, and keep some of that money here to build infrastructure, than to send it overseas to a place where, time and time and time again, our sons and daughters are being sent to die, even as I speak, to prop up the broken, petroleum-dependent system now in such obvious decline.
And, it is my belief that the people here today, the people in this room, can be the vanguard of a new day in America, a day where we get our energy needs from renewable resources that don’t despoil the earth or kill our children or pollute the air, a day when we operate a transportation system that is fast, efficient, safe, and reliable, and accessible to all Americans, not just those on the coasts or in high-density corridors.
Finally, it is my belief that we must start here, now, to make that day draw nigh. Thank you for coming. I look forward to the next two days here in St. Louis and them, over the rest of 2008, the Presidential campaign where I pledge to you that the message we create here, in St. Louis, will reach from New York to California, from New Orleans to Chicago, and the ears of the Presidential candidates of both parties, whoever they might be. Let us make that our promise, to ourselves, to our country, and to our children.
It is my privilege now to introduce Gil Carmichael, former Administrator for the Federal Railroad Administration under George H. W. Bush, and far more than that. When my little band of brothers began to traipse down to Washington, we began to meet regularly with FRA Administrator Gil Carmichael, who proved to be, and over the years has proven repeatedly, that he represents the very best element in American society, the citizen who gets into politics to make a difference.
Gil as some of you know was actually --- like me, by the way --- a car guy before he became a transportation guy. He was also a progressive in Mississippi politics, 40 years ago, when to be a progressive in that state often meant to be the target of abuse, or much worse.
While Gil, that year many long years ago, did not succeed in becoming governor of that state, he did something far more important. He made it possible to be publicly outspoken in the cause of justice, at a time when that took real courage. He quite literally put his life on the line for his beliefs, and made the world a better place for it. So, while you and I know of his reputation as a progressive in the field of transportation, of his long devotion to making the nation’s transportation system, especially its long-neglected rail system, one that could carry us into the 21st century, what Gil really is, is a great American who has made this place better just by being in it. One quick anecdote: in Mississippi, near Gil’s home in Meridian, on property he was redeveloping, he discovered not long ago an old municipal swimming pool, filled in and paved over. Upon investigation, he learned that that pool had once served the white children of the county, and that when the courts ordered it integrated, the town fathers of that era chose instead to bulldoze it shut.
When Gil discovered that history, he and his partner chose to spend their own money to rebuild and re-open that pool to all in that community, even though that had never been part of the redevelopment plan. Now that, I like to think, is a real American.
And that is one reason why, when Gil called me just a few weeks ago and asked me to put together a major national conference to get the transportation issue in front of the Presidential candidates of both parties, I decided to name it for him, by the way over his objections. You know, in this and other countries, we often name things after people when they are gone. After all I have learned from Gil, and after so many years now of help and friendship to this cause Gil has shown me and others, this Carmichael Conference is a fitting way to both honor Gil Carmichael, and to let the world know that he is very much on the case of America’s transportation challenge.
It is my deep honor to introduce to you, Gilbert E. Carmichael, who I am privileged to call my friend.
* Yes, John F. Kennedy said it first, during the 1960 Presidential campaign. I heard him say it; hard to believe that was 50 years ago, almost, and yet we still need to heed those words --- JPR
Jim RePass
Western Massachusetts at Last Gets
From the Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise and Internet Sources
FITCHBURG, MA -- A $30 million federal grant is “…bringing the Fitchburg Rail Line improvements one step closer to fruition,” reported the Fitchburg Sentinel this past week.
Reporter Brandon Butler wrote: “U.S. Rep. John Olver said that the $150 million project, which has been in the planning stages for about five years, will decrease the amount of time to commute from Fitchburg to Boston from 90 minutes to 70 minutes, once completed, according to Montachusett Regional Transit Authority Administrator Mohammed Kahn.
“This rail line improvement project, to reduce time of getting from Fitchburg to Porter Square by 20 minutes, I think is pretty important stuff,” Olver said in an interview. Kahn said the state has already begun soliciting engineering bids to design the project, which will cost about $14 million. Olver said if all goes well, construction could start in 18 months and then be completed by 2011. About $110 million has been earmarked for the project from state and federal monies, according to Kahn. “We are very fortunate to have the congressman helping us in this process,” Kahn said. “Also, our local delegation has worked very hard on securing money from the state government.”
The project will increase the train’s speed from an average of 40 mph to a high speed of 80 mph, Kahn said, as reported in the Fitchburg Sentinel. To do so, new bedding for the track must be installed to accommodate the higher speeds.
The project will also double track capacity from single to double rail lines on a 10-mile stretch of the system between Ayer and South Acton, Kahn said. [During the 1970’s - 1990’s many railroads ripped up their double or triple track lines to sell them for scrap and/or to save on maintenance costs, in the belief that the future of freight railroads would consist of very long, very slow, and relatively infrequent trains. This analysis turned out to be completely, 180_ wrong because the Japanese business practice of kanban (“just in time”) manufacturing began to be adopted worldwide, including in the United States, requiring faster, more frequent deliveries to the factory in place of huge warehousing facilities served by slow stocking trains that could arrive virtually anytime with the “next” 30-day supply, but the damage done by those decision s is now costing billions of dollars to undo, and is now being further complicated by the soaring demand for commuter rail service in the United States --- using the same under-capacity tracks.
New signaling equipment for train engineers that is set to be installed will increase safety at train-crossing intersections, Kahn said. Olver said the project will make the train “more commuter friendly” and predicted a possible 50 percent ridership increase once it’s completed. “This project is significant for the people who commute into Boston, but also for the area in attracting more people,” Olver said. Mayor Lisa Wong said she is excited about the federal grant and the overall project. “This project is definitely an economic boost for the area,” Wong said. “It will help us to continue to attract businesses and residents here alike.”
The Sentinel reported: Wong said the time it takes to commute to Boston is one of the major concerns of people thinking about moving to the area. “People want to know how they’re going to get from home to work,” she said. She said the other major issues are the schools and general quality of life. About half the cost of the project is coming from federally earmarked projects. The $30 million Small Starts grant included in President Bush’s fiscal year 2009 budget from the Federal Transit Authority must still be passed by Congress before the money is available, but Olver said he is confident that will happen. Olver said the remaining money will come in the next fiscal year. Gov. Deval Patrick set aside $75 million as part of a $2.9 billion transportation bond bill in November for the project. The bill still needs to be passed by the Massachusetts state legislature before the money is available. State Sen. Robert Antonioni, D-Leominster, said Patrick’s decision to put money in the bill shows his support of the project. “I don’t see any reason why the bond bill would not pass,” Antonioni said. Antonioni said public transportation improvements are important with the growing number of cars on Route 2.
“I think it will provide a more efficient ride and a quicker ride,” Antonioni said. “Anything we can do to lessen that burden on commuters is good.”
A second phase of the project will be considered after the first is complete to reduce the number of stops into Boston in an effort to make the commuting time one hour, Kahn said.
In This Edition...
Conference Summaries...
President & CEO
The National Corridors Initiative
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News Items...
Commuter Rail Attention via Olver Grant
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DALLAS-MARSHALL, TX --- Celia Boswell, Chair of the East Texas Corridor Council, announced today that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison will make available $455,000 in federal funding to conduct an initial study for higher speed passenger rail service between the DFW area and East Texas.
The announcement came at a joint meeting of the National Association of Railroad Passengers and the Texas Association of Rail Passengers, meeting in Dallas.
This is the first real funding for the U.S. Department of Transportation rail corridor since it was established in 2000, announced Texas ARP. “The funds will be directed to the Texas Department of Transportation to conduct the feasibility and engineering study between Fort Worth-Dallas and points east including Terrell, Mineola, Longview, Marshall and Texarkana. Supporters hope that an extension of the corridor between East Texas and Shreveport could occur in the future.”
In what was seen as a very timely coincidence, a new Louisiana Secretary of Transportation and Development, Dr. William Ankner, has taken office under newly-elected Louisiana Governor Bobbi Jindall. He comes to Louisiana from Missouri where he was responsible for creating and running the Missouri Transportation Institute and was a principal in his own consulting firm, which offers planning and financial advice to cities and chambers of commerce.
[Dr. Ankner served seven years, from 1996-2003, as CEO of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and has held senior management positions in the Delaware DOT, where he was director of finance, management and budget from 1993-96. Other stops include executive jobs with the New Jersey Department of Transportation and the New York and New Jersey port authorities. Louisiana is studying re-introduction of passenger service New Orleans-Baton Rouge and on to Shreveport; combined with the work of Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Texas rail advocates and mayors, the region could see the introduction of Dallas-New Orleans passenger service for the first time in decades – D:F]
Harrison County Judge Richard Anderson said that East Texas agencies are working with the North Louisiana Council of Governments to develop ideas. Up to 70% of the traffic to casinos across the Louisiana border comes from Texas. A direct rail link from the Dallas-Fort Worth area would move some road traffic from Interstate 20 in East Texas and onto higher speed trains.
The South Central High Speed Rail Corridor, when developed, could see passenger rail service of 90-110 miles per hour and faster movement of goods by freight trains that now must operate on a single track through most of the state. Other corridors in the U.S. are already under development or in service, but the Texas-Arkansas-Oklahoma corridor has seen little movement until now.
Maintenance Lines...
Amtrak Bridge Closure Moves To June
NEW LONDON, CT, FEB 16 — The U.S. Coast Guard is planning a June closure of the Thames River when Amtrak replaces the movable span of its railroad bridge between New London and Groton, reported The Day in a story by Katie Warchut.
The closure had been planned for the month of May, but Coast Guard officials agreed that delaying it a month would give Amtrak more time in case the project runs into any delays.
The prospect of a May closure concerned recreational boaters since it could affect affecting Memorial Day weekend, which kicks off the boating season, while Cross Sound Ferry officials said May is a bad time because its vessels are being painted at Thames Shipyard's dry docks, north of the bridge.
Both parties will be affected nonetheless, as June will see more recreational boaters, and ferries could need servicing at the shipyard.
According to current plans, the bridge will be in the closed position from June 3 to June 13 while the bridge's 4-million-pound counterweight is removed. The channel will be open only to vessels that can pass under the bridge's 30-foot vertical clearance.
From June 14 to June 17, the bridge will be closed except for a 36-hour window — after the old span is removed, but before the new span is floated into place — when vessels would be able to pass through.
Between June 18 and June 20, the channel again will be open but limited to the 30-foot clearance, while the new bridge is fixed in the closed position so that lifting cables can be installed.
Thames River users have told Amtrak it should do everything it can to ensure the closure does not affect the Fourth of July holiday.
The annual Harvard-Yale Regatta, which takes place on the Thames upriver from the bridge, is scheduled during the closure, on June 14.
The new bridge span will move vertically between two towers, like an elevator, to allow marine traffic to pass underneath instead of the old drawbridge design.
Amtrak is planning to shut down the northeast corridor from New Haven to Boston for four days during construction and still has no plans to offer an alternative to passengers.
The Coast Guard will submit a “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” soon, which is published in the Federal Register. Typically, this notice gives 60 days for public comment from any interested party, and an additional 30 days for reply comments.
Selected Rail Stocks...
Source: www.MarketWatch.com
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Guest Opinion...
A Comprehensive Rationale for a National
Balanced Infrastructure Program
The end of January brought the 2008 Carmichael Conference to St. Louis, Missouri. The theme of the effort may be boiled down to a search for an answer to the question “How may we produce a serious national conversation concerning the future of the American Transportation System?” The answer to that query may be found in a coupling of the perceived problems facing the country to the need to rebuild and enhance a deteriorated and underdeveloped infrastructure.
First, the United States faces the prospect of a severe recession in which the economic pain will endure for a period of years, not months. A recent column in the New York Times set forth that unhappy prospect. Second, income polarization is on the lips not only of politicians but economists and other serious observers of the ills of the country. Third, large segments of the population seem unprepared for the educational and intellectual challenges of the new century. Fourth, congestion, energy and global warming crises are real and require serious policy response. Fifth, the apparent lack of national purpose has engendered a political response in which tax cutting is sold as the answer to all social ills either currently perceived or that might be discovered in the future.
The development of a truly balanced infrastructure improvement program leading to balanced transportation and a revolution in energy policy addresses each of the foregoing while providing a basis for sustainable development.
Not only does the nation face a financial crisis stemming from the real estate bubble but a more general set of woes from the sub-prime debacle. These issues have yet to be faced. If the economy is to be sustained, there must be an economic stimulus of a more enduring nature than the paltry interim measures proposed. The nature of the economic problem facing the country is long term and structural.
The lag in job creation except in areas of low skill, low pay occupations is in part responsible for the mortgage difficulties the country faces now and will face in the future. Inadequate income for low and moderate-income groups lies at the heart of the problem. Infrastructure is designed, created, maintained and operated by a mixture of high and low skill operatives who acquire additional skills in the process and assemble the economic capital required to succeed in the new economy.
Persons with income (as was the case after World War II for construction and factory workers) provide opportunity and education for their children who can be prepared to staff the need for additional well-educated and highly skilled workers for the new economy.
The energy and global warming problem requires new policies. The country cannot simply solve these problems by laying vast acres of new concrete. Electricity needs to be the energy source of the future. Future generation technology depends on the historic innovational educational resources of the country. Transit and high speed rail must be part of the solution.
Nearly every speaker at the conference, regardless of background or identification with any single transportation mode, agreed. Robert Crandall, retired CEO of American Airlines told the conferees that air travel is not meant for travel of less than 500 miles, as he called for high speed rail and transit. The Norfolk and Southern Railroad, represented at the conference, is cooperating with the State of Virginia and other governmental and private entities to create an intermodal freight lane paralleling congested I-81. The effort must be duplicated on additional corridors. AASHTO officials, and others historically associated with road building, posited that a policy founded solely on road building is not a viable path for the future. They too looked to public transit and rail projects to provide answers to both passengers and freight.
Finally, a coalition dedicated to a national purpose built around providing for the society’s future links public policy to a vision for future prosperity and convenience. It answers agitation for one more tax concession from the over-compensated and self-absorbed. It avers that the purchase of larger television screens, construction of additional McMansions and ever-larger and more powerful automobiles might not comport with the ambitions of a great society.
How will all this be financed with the financial hang over of the war and the President’s tax cutting philosophy? The guiding principle is that borrowing to sustain investment in capital goods that bring future economic benefit is far different from borrowing to sustain temporary consumer expenditures and war expense.
It may be that a national “Infrastructure Reconstruction and Renewal Corporation” needs to be created with broad financing powers as well as powers to toll and receive a portion of a future fuel tax, revenue from any cap and trade regime or carbon tax in order to separate these capital efforts from the regular budget while providing facilities that address these multiple problems. Perhaps a structure guaranteeing professional management and decision-making with bi-partisan or better yet, non-partisan, management is a necessary element.
In summary, great achievements are concomitant to great ambition and ground-breaking initiatives.
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Publication Notes...
Copyright © 2008 National Corridors Initiative, Inc. as a compilation work and original content. Permission is granted to reproduce content provided acknowledgements to NCI are given. Return links to the NCI web site are encouraged and appreciated. Color Name Courtesy of Doug Alexander. Content reproduced by NCI remain the copyrights of the original publishers. Web page links as reproduced in our articles are active at the time we go to press. Occasionally, news and information outlets may opt to archive these articles and notices under alternative web addresses after initial publication. NCI has no control over the policies of other web sites and regrets any inconvenience experienced when clicking off our web site. We try to be accurate in the stories we write, but even seasoned pros err occasionally. If you read something you know to be amiss, or if you have a question about a topic, we’d like to hear from you. Please e-mail the editor at editor@nationalcorridors.org. Please include your name, and the community and state from which you write. For technical issues contact D. Kirkpatrick, NCI’s webmaster at webmaster@nationalcorridors.org. Photo submissions are welcome. NCI is always interested in images that demonstrate the positive aspects of rail, transit, intermodalism, transportation-oriented development, and current newsworthy events associated with our mission. Please contact the webmaster in advance of sending large images so we can recommend attachment by e-mail or grant direct file transfer protocols (FTP) access depending on size. Descriptive text which includes location and something about the content of the image is required. We will credit the photographer and offer a return link to your web site or e-mail address. In an effort to expand the on-line experience at the National Corridors Initiative web site, we have added a page featuring links to other transportation initiative sites. We hope to provide links to those cities or states that are working on rail transportation initiatives – state DOTs, legislators, government offices, and transportation organizations or professionals – as well as some links for travelers, enthusiasts, and hobbyists. If you have a favorite link, please send the web address (URL) to our webmaster. Destination Freedom is partially funded by the Surdna Foundation, and other contributors. |
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