The theme on Need to Know this week is “responsibility.”

[FayeforCure]

For high-speed rail, a tale of two governors
January 14, 2011
The theme on Need to Know this week is “responsibility.” Sometimes, responsibility is in the eye of the beholder.

For example, what is the best way to invest in the nation’s infrastructure? In the state of Wisconsin, the governor declined $810 million in federal stimulus money for a high-speed rail initiative because he says the state couldn’t afford to maintain the system and that money should be spent on roads, not rail.

However, in Illinois, the governor sees his responsibility differently. As part of our collaboration with the PBS reporting project Blueprint America, we asked correspondent Rick Karr to look at the future of passenger rail.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/video/video-for-high-speed-rail-a-tale-of-two-governors/6436/

report about American passenger rail from the television news magazine, "Need to Know."  I think it does a great job of showing why investing in passenger rail is good for American jobs and good for American mobility.

The report is called "Off The Rails," and was produced by WNET in conjunction with PBS and Blueprint America.

In the opening segment, correspondent Rick Karr rides an Amtrak train from Normal, Illinois, to Chicago with commuter John Thomas. Discussing his commute--100 miles and two and a half hours--Thomas says, "I don't do it every day. But, if there are more trains, if the reliability is higher, if the speed is faster, it would allow me to do it every day."

That is exactly the kind of service President Obama's passenger rail initiative envisions.



Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, Karr interviews biotech executive Kevin Conroy, who says his drive from Madison to Milwaukee several times a week, "Kills a whole day because it's an hour and a half each way. But with the train, you'd jump on the train and get a ton of work done."

Add to those benefits the good jobs created to transform this vision into reality, the economic development an American passenger rail network would generate, and the environmental benefits of rail, and we are talking about a real game-changer.

But, if you're a regular reader of this blog, then you've heard me make the argument for passenger rail before. So, I invite you to sit back and watch this terrific television report.

http://fastlane.dot.gov/2011/01/new-video-report-makes-the-case-for-investing-in-american-passenger-rail.html