Rail
Basics
Following ‘Cash for Clunkers’ with ‘Riches for Rail’
Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, began his hearing on transit today by displaying the above cartoon by Pulitzer prize-winner Tom Toles. The senator's message parallels Toles': In a world where the auto industry can get $2 billion more in one week, what's to be done about rail's $50 billion backlog?
August 4, 2009
Senators Seek Rail Safety Funding in Aftermath of Metro Crash
Mere hours after the Washington Metro system suffered a shocking accident, two senior senators released a letter to their colleagues asking for $50 million in grants to improve rail safety technology.
June 23, 2009
LaHood, Biden Meet With Governors on High-Speed Rail
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Vice President Biden met at the White House this afternoon with officials from 20 states in contention for funding as part of the Obama administration's high-speed rail program.
June 3, 2009
Rail Across America
You've probably seen this already. It's the latest graphic representation of the nation's proposed high-speed rail corridors, and it's been all over the transportation blogosphere since President Obama stood beside it at a press conference yesterday.
April 17, 2009
Obama and Biden Plan Whistle-Stop Inauguration Tour
Looks like the new administration is sending better signals with its inauguration plans than with its most recent White House appointment. TPM has more on the rail-friendly gesture and its traffic-mitigating impact:
December 15, 2008
San Francisco Mayor to NYC: “Eat Your Heart Out.”
At a groundbreaking ceremony for the long-awaited Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco yesterday, Mayor Gavin Newsom asserted the project will be "so much more extraordinary than Grand Central Station."
December 11, 2008
From Denver: Dems Discuss Funding Woes; Biden Says “Amtrak”
Last night saw what might one day qualify as an historic moment in transportation circles, as vice presidential candidate Joe Biden used the "A"-word during his speech to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. From a transcript of Biden's address, via CNN:
August 28, 2008
Obama Builds Rail Cred With Biden Pick
Barack Obama's standing as an advocate for investment in US commuter rail looks to have gotten a boost with his selection of Joe Biden as his running mate. Whereas John McCain is the Senate's sworn enemy of Amtrak, his colleague from Delaware is known as a "Champion of the Rails." Notes Daily Kos diarist MissLaura (via George Washington University):
August 26, 2008
McCain Impressed by US Trains, So Long as They Don’t Stay in US
Our friend Sean Roche sent us a link to this brain-bending video of John McCain stumping in Pennsylvania. Just before the 1:00 mark, after McCain gives an ambiguous plug for electric cars, he unloads this doozy:
August 13, 2008
Obama’s Energy Platform Has a (Small) Livable Cities Plank
When Barack Obama gave his big energy speech on Monday, his campaign released an eight-page fact sheet [PDF] to go with it. All the way at the end, at the very bottom of the last page -- after the parts about plug-in electric vehicles, oil shale, and clean coal technology -- there's this paragraph:
August 7, 2008