High Speed Rail - that’s it? $151 Million dollars
That’s my first impression of New York State being awarded approximately 2% of an $8 billion d0llar High Speed Rail initiative. It isn’t anything to be overjoyed about. Remodeling the Rochester Train Station into an intermodal system was not approved. The high point is building an additional track section near Albany that alleviates a significant traffic bottleneck (freight trains have the right of way and passenger trains have to wait up to 30 mins).
So what is happening? (via the D&C)
- Repair and improve the Rochester train station.
- Rehabilitate the Buffalo-Depew station.
- Perform engineering and environmental analysis on development of a third track on an 11-mile stretch between Buffalo and Rochester.
- Improve 12 grade crossings on CSX tracks south of Albany.
- Build a second track between Albany and Schenectady.
- An additional $3 million will be used to build a 2.3-mile third track north of Albany for the Adirondack Express, which serves Montreal, and the Ethan Allen Express, which provides service to Rutland, Vt.
- Finally, $1 million will be used for continued planning for the Empire Corridor between Buffalo and New York City.
One of the complaints is that New York contributes more “tax dollars” and doesn’t get its fair return. I get that we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and perhaps this is the first step towards a sensible train system still although local leaders have said positve things, “tickled pink” isn’t exactly how I’d describe it.
U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, insisted that the upstate House caucus, which she leads, was not worried that seven states were given more money than New York. “Disappointment is not in the upstate caucus of the House,” Slaughter said. “The competition was fierce for this. To be number eight, I’m tickled pink with that.”
Let’s review - Rochester is represented by4 Representatives and 2 Senators. I understand that the Reps Massa, Maffei and Lee are freshman and Sen Gillibrand is slightly senior to Sen Franken but Rep Slaughter and Sen Shumer aren’t and should be considered power players. Schumer engineering the Dem Senate take over and Slaughter on the Rules committee. Frankly, this just seems odd.
So, a good start but I expected a bit more. Perhaps additional grants will come later it the year.
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High speed rail will be the transit system of the future,
If Maggie is against it, then it is probably a great idea.
Most likely her cronies couldn’t get their hands on the money.
It is a less than auspicious start though
Someone with more audacious hope should have seen the jobs and secondary benefits of more investment
We simply can not afford high speed rail. LRT lines and public transportation in high density areas require massive subsidies. High speed transit will be a giant money pit that further destroys our economy.
The government will need people to lay the rails and that will create jobs. The Transcontinental Railroad took four years to build, they suffered massive difficulties, but when it was done it helped bring the country closer together (though that would lead to the Indian Wars, but that’s another topic). Have you ever been to Germany, or England? They have wonderful high speed rail systems. You can go from Munich to Bremen in I think it was about five hours (still less time than driving across without speed limits). Another thing I like about Germany is that they are not paranoid and have airport scanners at the stations. Just buy your ticket, get on the train, and go.
And yes, we need LRT in most urban areas. It will help reduce traffic jams and curtail pollution. Another nice thing I noticed in Rochester was a separate lane for bicycles.
I’m all for high speed rail–for passengers. We need to get passenger trains off of the old freight train rails and build something new and safe. High speed rail better be the wave of the future, because I don’t think I can stomach flying anymore.