President's Transportation Budget Focuses on High-Speed Rail

[marmar]

CQ, via MassTransitMag:



President's Transportation Budget Focuses on High-Speed Rail

By Colby Itkowitz and Kathryn A. Wolfe
Congressional Quarterly Today


NATION - President Obama's budget blueprint released Thursday proposes additional $5 billion for high-speed rail grants beyond the $8 billion already appropriated in the massive economic stimulus package.

The Transportation Department's proposed $72.5 billion budget for fiscal 2010 represents a $2 billion increase from the estimated fiscal 2009 total. The department received about $48 billion in the stimulus package (PL 111-5).

Earlier this week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said developing high-speed trains in America like ones already in use in Europe and Asia is a priority for Obama.

"It's something the president wants for his transportation legacy," LaHood said.

Several corridors linking metropolitan areas such as Washington and New York or Las Vegas and Los Angeles could compete for the rail grants. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.masstransitmag.com/web/online/Top-Transit-News/Presidents-Transportation-Budget-Focuses-on-High-Speed-Rail/3$8061

[nxylas]

1. Yeah baby!

I hope this isn't just going to concentrate on the Northeast. They're already well-served by Amtrak.

[marmar]

2. Here's a link to the map of the proposed routes:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/18/map-of-potential-high-spe_n_167804.html

[nxylas]

3. Thanks. Here's a larger version

http://www.fra.dot.gov/downloads/Research/hsr_corridors_2009.pdf

I could get a train from Columbia to Philadelphia and get another train from there to Pittsburgh to visit my in-laws in Weirton, WV.

[happyslug]

4. Remember people, this is a STIMULUS PACKAGE, to be spent ASAP

The planning needed, the Purchasing of the Right of Way, getting the rails together along with the Bridges, Stops etc, will take years of Planning. The Stimulus money will be gone well before any of that is done. Thus this package is NOT for, and can NOT be for, any custom built high speed rail system.

What this money is for is money to upgrade the existing Rail system. This can be done quickly, most plans to upgrade rail service has been on the books for years.

Now, that does NOT mean new rail lines will not be laid, but it has to be something that can be Begin THIS YEAR and Finished by 2010. For example in the mid 1930s Pennsylvania wanted to build a superhighway through the state on an abandoned (But never finished, through almost complete) Railroad. The Federal Government gave the money to Pennsylvania to build what is now the PA Turnpike between Irwin and Carlsle. It was later expanded (in the 1950s) to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, but that was money raised from the tolls NOT Stimulus money, thus the part I am talking about is the part through the Mountains of PA between Irwin (Outside of Pittsburgh on US 30) and Carlisle (On US 30 outside Harrisburg). It was quickly built for the land was quickly obtained (It had fallen in local Government hands through failure to pay taxes). Most of the Tunnels drilled in the 1880s for the Railroad were used (Second Tunnels to separate the lanes of Traffic was not built till the 1960s), through one tunnel had to be drilled (Allegheny Mountain, the Railroad Tunnel was, and is unsafe, it still exists but sealed).

Now, people had talked about using the old Railroad bed as early as 1910 as a highway, but the state did not pass the needed laws till 1937 (After Survey work had been done in 1934, but no development except plans came out of that Survey). In 1937 PA proposed building the PA Turnpike, Franklin Roosevelt liked the idea for it meant a lot of jobs for a lot of people he had the Work's Project Administration provide the money. The Highway was built in 20 months, do to the fact the roadbed had been built 50 years before as a Railroad and the Survey had been done in 1934 provided a basic plan of operation. Except for Allegheny Mountain no Tunnels were needed AND except for some small bridges to carry local roads over the Turnpike Bridges were not needed. Thus it could be built with maximum of manual labor over a very short (20 month) period.

For more details on the PA Turnpike see:
http://www.paturnpike.com/geninfo/history/history.aspx

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=2785&&SortOrder=100&level=3&parentid=2784&css=L3&mode=2&in_hi_userid=2&cached=true

Story of rebuilding the Tunnels in the 1960s:
http://www.briantroutman.com/highways/abandonedpaturnpike/

http://www.pumpwarehouse.com/pat.html
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=2785&&SortOrder=100&level=3&parentid=2784&css=L3&mode=2&in_hi_userid=2&cached=true

Now the PA Turnpike was the largest and most extensive project funded by the WPA. In many ways it took to long do to the size of the project (And notice minimum of bridges and tunnels and intersections). Most WPA projects were more like the old trolley ramp (Now bus ramp) on West Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh. Prior to its construction at the same time as the Turnpike (Late 1930s), the Streetcars of Pittsburgh's South Hills went down West Liberty Avenue till they arrived at the Liberty Tunnels. At the Tunnels (Built in the 1920s to give Cars access to Pittsburgh from the South Hills) the Streetcars went the old way to town, i.e. turn left and then right up Warrington Avenue to the 1905 Streetcar Tunnel at South Hills Junction. In the 1930s the WPA paid the City of Pittsburgh to build what had been proposed for decades, a ramp from West Liberty Avenue, 1/3 of a mile away from the Liberty Tunnels that would take the Streetcars of West Liberty Avenue up to adjoining hillside, where the Beechview Trolley had a separate route to South Hills Junction and the Streetcar tunnel. This removed all the Streetcars from anywhere near the Liberty Tunnels

More on the Liberty Tunnels:
http://pghbridges.com/pittsburghW/0584-4474/liberty_tun.htm

The Old Streetcar Tunnel, now a Bus/LRV Tunnel:
http://pghbridges.com/pittsburghW/0584-4475/mtwashingtonPAT_tun.htm

Picture of a Streetcar entering the Ramp (The Beechview line is behind the trees up along the ramp but above it by 30-40 feet):
http://www.spdconline.org/history/Trolleys/Trolley16.html
http://www.spdconline.org/history/Trolleys/Trolley16.html

Streetcar coming down the ramp from the Beechview line:
http://www.spdconline.org/history/Trolleys/Trolley1.html
http://www.spdconline.org/history/Trolleys/Trolley1.html

Streetcar on the Bridge that bypass the whole mess at the Liberty Tunnel Intersection:
http://www.spdconline.org/history/Trolleys/Trolley2.html
The ramp went up to this pre-existing bridge.

Where I reference most of the above Streetcar pictures:
http://www.spdconline.org/history/Trolleys/Trolleys.html

What the Streetcars had to go through BEFORE the Ramp:
http://pghbridges.com/pittsburghW/0584-4474/liberty_tunA.htm#
http://pghbridges.com/pittsburghW/0584-4474/liberty_tunA.htm
http://pghbridges.com/pittsburghW/0584-4474/liberty_tun.htm

I bring up the above, for it is things like new Train engines and cars, improved stations, new routes on old lines are the things that will be done. Whatever is going to be paid for will have to be ready by the middle of summer, not the 2-3 years it will take just to buy the right of ways (and to move people out of the right of way). IT will be things like the West Liberty Ramp, that took the streetcars off the road and onto an already existing private right of way. We may have something like the PA Turnpike, but I doubt it, what I foresee is more on line of upgrading the rail stations so people can get on and off the trains without having to climb up and down stairs (And slow down the whole process of entering and exiting the train). I foresee New trains that may come more often then the one a day that is typical of trains in most of the US today (The big exception is the East Coast). No big projects but a lot of small projects that when added up increases train speed