ktocadmin

miller1104: Secretary Miller, will you now return to the practice of providing KDOT letters of support to localities that are trying desperately to secure funding in Washington for projects WE deem important? 6/18/2010 2:46 PM

nfaokla: Lost in much of the Stimulus Bill (ARRA) discussion is the fact that capacity mitigation through State or State/Amtrak coordination will help the nation more efficiently haul freight, reduce energy consumption, and clean the air. For years, the railroads have struggled with imbalanced semi-truck competition, much of which has been shouldered by the taxpayer with increasing road and bridge project subsidies. Our roads seem to be increasingly engineered for weights that approach those of freight trains and not automobiles.

Unfortunately, it again falls upon the taxpayer to “right-the-ship.” Hopefully, the larger lesson, or adjustment, should be to have the public pay more attention to government activities and act around election time. Public apathy has been a cancer on our government for the past 60 years. If you criticize the stimulus bill, consider that it would have been unnecessary if we had been a bit more careful and elected more visionaries over this timespan.

Passenger rail expansion through the ARRA serves two purposes. It provides Amtrak expansion time "slots" on busy freight corridors. It even makes feasible new operation over freight corridors once considered too busy to support passenger rail. However, of greater benefit to freight railroads is the fact that proposed capacity improvement will provide additional freight time "slots," without railway capital investment. As an example, the Union Pacific AND Amtrak passengers will soon reap benefits from a $3 million federal match between Kansas City and St. Louis corridor with new and lengthened sidings.

While conservatives may claim this stimulus funding supports unionized business over free enterprise, or even a “President Obama Chinese Loan,” nobody can argue that the nation is in the midst of economic peril with crumbling infrastructure. The adjustment to a more efficient way of transporting goods and people is long overdue and will hopefully provide long term benefits with short term pain (with an emphasis on hopefully). The net benefit to corporations, investors, and the traveling public is that it begins to level a 60 year imbalance in US transportation spending.

New federal railroad investment should encourage all freight rail companies to reevaluate passenger rail benefits. Freight railroads should no longer discourage passenger rail expansion based upon past and present operational realities. Rather, they should see Amtrak expansion as a way to provide a competitive edge to their freight operations that in many cases require capacity expansions based upon freight traffic alone.
3/13/2009 11:33 AM

ktocadmin: Please post comments, questions and suggestions at:

http://ktoc.net/group_discussion.aspx?DiscussionID=241cae98cb4645cdb68ed1e60d62c413 2/20/2009 9:48 AM