Obama to announce high-speed rail plan post-speech

[jefferson_dem]

Obama to announce high-speed rail plan post-speech
By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writer Julie Pace, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – A day after delivering a State of the Union address aimed at showing recession-weary Americans he understands their struggles, President Barack Obama intends to award $8 billion in stimulus funds to develop high-speed rail corridors and sell the program as a jobs creator.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden plan to announce grants for 13 major corridors during a town hall meeting in Tampa, Fla., Thursday, the president's first public appearance following his speech to the nation. It's an attempt by the White House to show that getting Americans back to work is the president's top priority and that he has a plan for how to do it.

The president's visit to the region means Florida's proposal for a high-speed line connecting Orlando and Tampa is likely to receive funding. California's proposal for an 800-mile-long rail line from Sacramento to San Diego and a nine-state proposal in the Midwest are also considered strong contenders.

The $8 billion in funding for high-speed trains and other passenger rail projects is part of the $787 billion recovery act. Besides the 13 corridors receiving grants, a White House official said several smaller awards will be made for improvements to existing rail lines. Overall, 31 states will receive funds.

The official said the projects are expected to create or save tens of thousands of jobs in areas like track-laying, manufacturing, planning and engineering, though there is no time frame for how long it will take for those jobs to develop. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak ahead of the president's announcement.

<SNIP>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100127/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_high_speed_rail

[Clio the Leo]

1. No doubt Biden's FAVORITE part of the sepech. ;-) NT

[karynnj]

2. May well be

He has been an advocate for rail for decades. I assume that John Kerry will love that part as well as it was a variation of his 2008 legislation that was accepted into the stimulus bill that started the funding for what this will become. Kerry pushed its inclusion in the Finance committee. Although obviously both Obama and Biden supported it, as did Harry Reid.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/25/95822/061

[Clio the Leo]

4. Wouldn't it be awesome....

.... for Biden to ride out of DC in seven years on one of Obama's new bullet trains?

[karynnj]

8. It would be - Cleo this is for you

Did you ever here Kerry's praise of Joe Biden on this - from when they announced the funding? He is a great friend to Biden.

It’s more than appropriate for Vice President Joe Biden to make this announcement this morning. Before his election last November, Joe took that ride from Wilmington to Washington and back again – one hour and thirty five minutes on the Regional, one hour and twenty minutes on the Acela – on Amtrak almost daily for thirty seven years.



And now that he’s no longer a regular Amtrak passenger we’re finally getting around to spending seven hundred million dollars to make improvements in the Northeast Corridor. Sorry, Joe. Timing is everything.



But Senators Specter, Carper, and Kaufman are now Amtrak commuters, so they’ll get to enjoy the fruits of your labors, and Amtrak’s portion of the $1.3 billion we are announcing today. And so will the 245 million commuters who are traveling on the Northeast Rail Corridor each year.



Amtrak has had no greater champion than Joe Biden. When others in Washington wanted to stop it in its tracks, Joe spoke up. To him, passenger rail was good public policy. But it also was personal to the guy that the Amtrak engineers, conductors, porters, and baggage handlers simply called “Joe” every morning. He was the original “Morning Joe” and a Regular Joe to his Amtrak friends. Amtrak has no greater champion in the Obama Administration than Vice President Joe Biden.



This is obviously a very important announcement for all of us who believe in the future of passenger rail in this country. Not only because it creates jobs in a time of economic crisis. But it’s because it’s an investment in the long term strength of our country unclog our highways and our airports and improve the environment all at the same time.



We already know that a train can carry a ton of freight an average of 410 miles on just one gallon of diesel fuel. So imagine the greater savings in energy and the further declines in pollution if we keep making the right investments in a modern rail system.



Much of the history of this country was written in the steel rails of railroads. They opened the continent to pioneers and to commerce.



The 19th Century historian Charles Kingsley recognized the importance of the railroads throughout the world. To Kingsley, railroads were just one sign that, as he put it, “We are, on some points at least, in harmony with the universe.”



That may be overstating it a bit, but the future of this country is also going to be written on the strengthened back of a modern rail system. That is certain.



And with the kind of leadership we’re getting from the President and from Joe, we’ll get Joe back on Amtrak, sending the Vice President home to visit his mother Jean Biden at 150 miles per hour.

http://kerry.senate.gov/cfm/record.cfm?id=309684

[Clio the Leo]

11. awww, "sending him home to visit his mother"...

.... bittersweet.

[karynnj]

17. I caught that ... and that is one place he definately would have gone

- It is bittersweet reading that now. I thought you would want to see that at least one man has Biden's back. That was one of the many times when the media cool kids were picking on him - though there are few times when they aren't.

[Jennicut]

5. Clio....for you

[Clio the Leo]

12. Prrr, who would have thought....

.... that the VP of the US would make the comb-over sexy again!

He did for the comb over what Billy Ray did for the mullet. :)

[Phoonzang]

3. Why post-speech? nt

[karynnj]

6. I assume post speech refers to the offiicial, detailed announcement

that will be at the town hall. I can't imagine that it will not be mentioned at the SOTU.

[optimator]

7. we pay for the tracks then get charged again to use it

$8 billion in taxpayer money will build these tracks (which is good)
then a FUCKIN PRIVATE CORPORATION gets to charge us to use it.
And the so called "jobs" are actually just more work for existing contractors where the labor does not see one extra dime. It is ALL profit for the owners.
One gigantic fucking scam.

[high density]

16. Building tracks doesn't pay for equipment, labor, and fuel to keep the service running on the rails

Private investment seems to be at an all time low in this country. If we waited for Amtrak to upgrade the rails it would never happen. They don't own many (any?) of the rails they use anyway.

The act of "investing" in the USA has become nothing more than stock market speculation or building up a cheaper offshore labor presence.

[8 track mind]

9. I would love to use it.

I travel a lot for business, and i HATE flying. Scares the shit out of me.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

10. Me too.

I have a completely irrational fear of flying. I know it's irrational, but I can't help it. I think it is because deep down I feel that if there is an accident I know I have 0% chance of surviving whereas on a train or in a car I juuuuust might.

[high density]

13. The Portland, ME / Boston line also wants a high speed update

If that train ride could be 45 minutes I think it would change the landscape of the Portland area considerably.

[livetohike]

14. A long, long, long overdue project especially

in CA. It will bring many jobs from engineers to construction workers to factory jobs. Not to mention the subcontracting.....I hope this gets going.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

15. I love high-speed rail but this is hardly shovel-ready

Claiming this as a jobs program is not going to do much to reduce cynicism.

It's good national policy but not effective employment policy.

[karynnj]

19. I think there are parts of it that are

This was included in the stimulus and it was defined as mostly long term. You can't define work just as construction. There will be many engineers and others hired to design, evaluate, get additional right aways etc for this. In addition, I think the Boston/DC piece, which currently has the right trains has only an 18 minute segment that runs at high speed. The underlying bridges and other infrastructure needed major improvements. (This in spite of the provision to create that as high speed was Kerry addition to an early 1990s budget.)

The most immediate part of the stimulus bill were the grants to states to allow them to retain police, firemen, and teachers. There were also road projects EVERYWHERE I drove. I saw construction in NJ, NY, MA, CT, Il, VT and IN. Everywhere we went. Now those projects were needed to improve the roads and as stimulation, but long term, we need to make more comprehensive improvements in a forward looking way.

[harun]

18. Alright, got my attention, now build it.

[butterfly77]

20. This is one of the ..

reasons I voted for him..