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Public Transportation Mon May 17 2010
The Collapse of the High Speed Rail Promise?
Advocates of publicly-owned transit were over the moon with the announcement by the Obama administration that there would be serious investment in high-speed rail as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Communities likely to be served by the high speed rail had tentatively begun community information efforts. Transit advocates like the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) have begun undertaking serious study of the benefits of the program as planned.
Unfortunately, there may not be much of a future to the plan. The Infrastructurist asks, "Could high-speed rail stall completely in the U.S.?" And the answer seems to be yes:
Following the much-ballyhooed $8 billion that the government allotted to states as part of the stimulus bill, it doesn't look like there's much more federal money after that. In 2010, Congress authorized $2.5 billion for HSR projects -- and for 2011, it's a mere $1 billion. And given the shambles condition of most states' budgets, it's highly unlikely that state governments will be able to write big checks to HSR projects in the next 2 to 5 years.
Stroganovsky / May 17, 2010 11:20 AM
Just another Obamanable bait-and-switch, or is it just bait-and-leave-you-in-the-ditch?