Party of NO is a RAIL KILLER

[FayeforCure]

Intent on demonstrating their resistance to virtually all of President Obama’s policy objectives, Republicans nationwide have staked out an anti-rail position that they hope will stand out as the fiscally reasonable choice when they present themselves in this fall’s elections. Though the current Democratic administration will remain in power at least until early 2013, shifting control of Congress and potential power changes at the state level could dramatically reduce the ability of the Department of Transportation to advance its plans for the development of intercity rail.

Current polling suggests that Republicans are likely to do well in November across the country. The GOP has been leading the charge against high-speed rail since the program was first announced in February 2009.

Most problematic are the governorships, up for grabs in 37 of 50 states this year. Though the majority of recent spending on new intercity rail projects has originated at the federal government, the U.S. DOT is now requiring that state applicants agree to fund at least 20% of construction costs in order to receive a federal contribution. States will also be responsible for most operations expenses.

If Republican-led state governments are unwilling to commit to spending their own dollars on these projects, they simply will not be built. Since intercity rail projects are long-term investments, even if the federal government has already agreed to sponsor some investments, the takeover of a governor’s mansion by an anti-rail Republican could mean putting a full-stop in infrastructure development.

http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2010/09/22/republican-wave-could-spell-trouble-for-high-speed-rail-projects-from-coast-to-coast/

[CS Foltz]

Funny you should mention this Ms Faye............I do not remember any candidate saying much of anything regarding Rail...........mention jobs.......mentions of returning the government to the people and mentioning being our governor and disregardance of special interests.............but nothing about rail!

[ricker]

so... how am I to understand exactly what to do to rally support in opposition to these disconnected "lifers"?

I like PARTY OF YES!

btw
could the current design of the CSX A line in fact accomodate future HSR?
considering the graded curves already in place?

[FayeforCure]

Funny you should mention this Ms Faye............I do not remember any candidate saying much of anything regarding Rail...........mention jobs.......mentions of returning the government to the people and mentioning being our governor and disregardance of special interests.............but nothing about rail!

The mentions are Very Vocal: For or Against along Party Line according to this chart:



The Survival of U.S. High-Speed Rail All Comes Down to November

http://www.infrastructurist.com/2010/09/27/the-survival-of-us-high-speed-rail-all-comes-down-to-november/

[FayeforCure]

so... how am I to understand exactly what to do to rally support in opposition to these disconnected "lifers"?

I like PARTY OF YES!

btw
could the current design of the CSX A line in fact accomodate future HSR?
considering the graded curves already in place?

Agreed ricker:

Yes to Forward Visionary thinking!!

No to Regressive Backward thinking that will hold this country back from recovery!!

[ricker]

here!HERE!

BUT how HOW?!?

[thelakelander]

could the current design of the CSX A line in fact accomodate future HSR?

No.  However, it could accommodate an intercity rail corridor service and commuter rail.

[CS Foltz]

lake........I can see the "A" line being used as a spine and loops off of it being used as a feeder possibility! Ms Faye.........let me qualify......nothing making it into the open media! I know about the party lines be spouted, but nothing by any candidate in the media either for or against! Or at least nothing that I have heard or seen!

[FayeforCure]

Ms Faye.........let me qualify......nothing making it into the open media! I know about the party lines be spouted, but nothing by any candidate in the media either for or against! Or at least nothing that I have heard or seen!

CS Foltz, does AP and the Miami Sun-Sentinel qualify as open media?

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Obama's rail plan riding on key governor races
By MATT LEINGANG

Associated Press Writer

1:39 PM EDT, September 23, 2010

COLUMBUS, Ohio

Advertisement

President Barack Obama's plan for high-speed passenger rail has a lot riding on the outcome of some key gubernatorial races in November.

Republican candidates in Ohio and Wisconsin have promised to cancel rail projects that are getting millions from the federal stimulus package, mocking the plans as boondoggles or complaining the trains would leave the states with too much of a financial burden for future operations.

Florida Republican nominee Rick Scott is also making threats. Scott is opposed to any rail plan that would have to be subsidized indefinitely, spokeswoman Bettina Inclan said. She didn't comment on whether Scott would return $1.3 billion in stimulus money for high-speed trains connecting Tampa and Orlando.

Rail advocates who say the U.S. needs greater transportation options for the 21st century see GOP opposition as nothing but raw partisan politics, a way to destroy projects that, if successful, would stand as legacies to Obama's stimulus plan.

"I guess it makes sense for them politically, and it plays into the fantasy that highways pay for themselves," said Richard Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, a Chicago-based nonprofit that promotes passenger rail.

Obama in January awarded $8 billion in stimulus money for 13 passenger rail projects. The largest would connect San Francisco with Los Angeles, using trains traveling up to 220 mph.

Some of the projects are years from completion and will require more funding, while others are getting started.

Construction began Friday on track improvements that will allow passenger trains to run up to 110 mph between Chicago and St. Louis, up from 79 mph; and North Carolina is refurbishing passenger coaches and locomotives, the first phase of a plan to help that state increase top speeds to 90 mph on trains between Raleigh and Charlotte.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican who took office in January, supports a $75 million stimulus-funded track improvement project in the northern part of his state, calling passenger rail important to future development efforts.

But in Ohio, Republican candidate John Kasich has declared that state's rail project dead if he's elected governor.

Ohio is scheduled to get $400 million for a startup service connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati with trains reaching 79 mph by late 2012 or 2013. Final engineering would begin this fall.

Kasich, a former congressman and Fox News commentator who is ahead in the polls against Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, said the speed is too slow and questions whether enough people will ride it. About 6 million people live along the Cleveland to Cincinnati corridor, making it one of the most heavily populated corridors without rail service in the Midwest.

More: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/topic/chi-ap-oh-governorraces-rai,0,3528942.story


ricker On the How of exposing the disconnected lifers?

Clearly they live in fantasy la la land thinking that highways pay for themselves and that air travel pays for itself!

The reality is lifers should be embarrassed at the candidates they are fielding:

On the one end you have:
1. O'Donnell being against masturbation

On the other end you have:
2. Paladino circulating e-mails promoting beastiality

Shows the disconnected lifers for what they are: disconnected from REAL issues like transportation etc.

[CS Foltz]

Yes they would Ms Faye.....but with a sick wife, I don't have alot of time to pursue information! I don't get the Miami Sun-Sentinel and I don't get the TU! I get the basics from TV and the net! By open media, I refer to what political ad's are currently running.......Scott, Sink and the like and rail is never mentioned which is why I say "nothing in the open media"! All ready know about the "Party" platforms but my information sources are limited but since I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, what is not said is just as informative as what is said! Either way, nothing from any candidate other than the usual he said, she said and vote for me because I am against the special interests and for the people! Some of us can put two and two together and come up four unlike some people who try and convince us that it would equal 3.14!

[JeffreyS]

Certainly Crist has supported Florida's HSR very openly.

[JeffreyS]

Rick Scott's quote about not supporting rail that would have to be subsidized indefinitely smacks of ignorance. Guess he will be getting rid of anything that runs on oil if that is his standard.

[CS Foltz]

Certainly Crist has supported Florida's HSR very openly.

Yeah ...he did, but that's Federal money at work (yours and mine by the way!)

Rick Scott's quote about not supporting rail that would have to be subsidized indefinitely smacks of ignorance. Guess he will be getting rid of anything that runs on oil if that is his standard.

I think you hit it on the head with this one! Just another talking head without a single clue....kinda scares the hell outta me! He wants to be the governor too............I have doubts!

[FayeforCure]

Yes they would Ms Faye.....but with a sick wife, I don't have alot of time to pursue information! I don't get the Miami Sun-Sentinel and I don't get the TU! I get the basics from TV and the net! By open media, I refer to what political ad's are currently running.......

CS Foltz, I understand: I am the caregiver to my 20 year old quadriplegic son ( became paralyzed from a soccer injury at age 7)

Ads are notorious for distorting the truth and presenting outright lies. Not a good source of info.!

Here is another shining example of the job killing approach of the party of NO as it is related to RAIL:

Policy at Its Worst
By BOB HERBERT
Published: October 8, 2001

We can go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and threaten to blow Iran off the face of the planet. We can conduct a nonstop campaign of drone and helicopter attacks in Pakistan and run a network of secret prisons around the world. We are the mightiest nation mankind has ever seen.



But we can’t seem to build a railroad tunnel to carry commuters between New Jersey and New York.


The United States is not just losing its capacity to do great things. It’s losing its soul. It’s speeding down an increasingly rubble-strewn path to a region where being second rate is good enough.

The railroad tunnel was the kind of infrastructure project that used to get done in the United States almost as a matter of routine. It was a big and expensive project, but the payoff would have been huge. It would have reduced congestion and pollution in the New York-New Jersey corridor. It would have generated economic activity and put thousands of people to work. It would have enabled twice as many passengers to ride the trains on that heavily traveled route between the two states.

The project had been in the works for 20 years, and ground had already been broken when the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, rejected the project on Thursday, saying that his state could not afford its share of the costs. Extreme pressure is being exerted from federal officials and others to get Mr. Christie to change his mind, but, as of now, the project is a no-go.

This is a railroad tunnel we’re talking about. We’re not trying to go to the Moon. This is not the Manhattan Project. It’s a railroad tunnel that’s needed to take people back and forth to work and to ease the pressure on the existing tunnel, a wilting two-track facility that’s about 100 years old. What is the matter with us?

The Chinese could build it. The Turks could build it. We can’t build it.

One day after Governor Christie made his devastating announcement about the tunnel, the U.S. Labor Department released its latest unemployment statistics. They show that the nation remains locked in an employment crisis, unable to provide work for millions who want and need it. One of the major potential solutions to this crisis is all around us. America’s infrastructure is indisputably in sorry shape, and upgrading it to meet the needs of the 21st century is far and away the best strategy for putting people back to work.

The railroad tunnel project, all set and ready to go, would have provided jobs for 6,000 construction workers, not to mention all the residual employment that accompanies such projects. What we’ll get instead, if it is not built, is the increased pollution and worsening traffic jams that result when tens of thousands of commuters who would have preferred to take the train are redirected to their automobiles.

This is government policy at its pathetic worst. But it’s not the first policy disaster of Mr. Christie’s short tenure as governor. He blew a golden opportunity (along with $400 million in federal funds) to participate in the Obama administration’s Race to the Top competition to improve the nation’s public school systems. New Jersey’s bid came up needlessly and embarrassingly short because of a mistake in the application and the governor’s refusal to sign off on an agreement that had been reached with the teachers’ union.

This failure to take part in a nationwide initiative to bolster public education comes at a time when the United States, once the world’s leader in the percentage of young people with college degrees, has fallen to a humiliating 12th place among 36 developed nations.

No one can accuse the governor of New Jersey of being a visionary. But his stumbling and bumbling and his inability to chart a clear path to a better future is, frankly, just the latest example of the dismal leadership that Americans have endured for many years. Where once we were the innovators, the pathfinders, the model for the rest of the world, now we just can’t seem to get it done.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/opinion/09herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

[CS Foltz]

Thanks for the additional information Ms Faye! Surely food for thought, not to mention, nothing from either party about much of anything other than platitudes and the usual smoke and mirror routine! I don't buy squat from any of them and will make up my own mind.......right or wrong!