It’s a busy week for President Obama — just one day after his State of the Union address, he and the vice president will high-tail it to a town hall meeting in Tampa to announce federal grants for high speed rail projects in 13 major corridors. The total pot is $8 billion, put aside specifically for high-speed trains and other passenger rail projects as part of the $787 billion stimulus bill. Besides the lucky 13 receiving grants, a White House official said several smaller awards will be made for improvements to existing rail lines. In total, 31 states will receive funds.
Unfortunately, it’ll cost a lot more than a few billion to complete any high speed rail project, let alone multiple ones across the country. And so states have been scrambling to nab as much of that precious federal money as possible — the Federal Railroad Administration said it received a total of 45 applications requesting $50 billion in aid. The trick has been prioritizing which states/regions deserve funding, and how much.
So who are the biggest contenders to walk out with big grants tomorrow? Here’s a quick list, ranked by likelihood of their nabbing funding:
1) FLORIDA
The location of the president’s speech can only be read as a surefire tip-off: The Tampa-Orlando-Miami line will get a federal check in the mail. You may recall that Ray Lahood even stepped in to give the state’s fund-winning effort a jolt in October, when he made a speech castigating state lawmakers for failing to secure money for a proposed Orlando-area link and an existing South Florida commuter rail system that was short of cash when the state’s 2010 budget passed.
2) CALIFORNIA
The state’s impressive proposal for an 800-mile-long rail line from Sacramento to San Diego will need money. Lots of money. Far more than $8 billion. The government will give it something — but whether the cash-strapped Golden State can get it together to complete the job is another matter entirely. Still, the public support for the project so far has certainly been encouraging.
3) ILLINOIS[SButtonZ button="digg"]
There’s been plenty of anticipation and planning for the proposed Chicago-Milwaukee-St. Louis route, and the Midwest High Speed Rail Association has been hard at work submitting a thorough plan. And Joseph Szabo, Obama’s railroad czar, dropped a heavy hint the other day, praising the region’s “comprehensive plan for high-speed passenger rail service” during a conference in Chicago.
4) NEW YORK
It has the passengers, and it has the demand. The Northeast Corridor (which includes Boston and D.C.) is crying out for a HSR line. There’s the rest of New York, including Albany and other cities in the western and norther part of the state, which have been isolated for years — and some of them have been suffering through delayed service for decades. In some areas, New York State has been quietly begging for rail improvements for years — in part because it would facilitate New York City commutes, and let businesses move to cheaper parts of the state.
Most Likely to Get the Federal Shaft: TEXAS
Sorry, Lone Star State — the chances are good you’ll walk away without a cent. At a speech in Austin earlier this month, a top federal rail administrator charged with managing the distribution of the new grants said your application lacks “a central vision,” and the kind of political support from the governor and the Legislature that would help it compete against other states gunning for HSR cash.
Tags: High Speed Rail, stimulus money
It is too early to say who will come away without a cent. It sounds like there will be some funding to improve existing tracks (double/triple tracking to reduce congestion), and for these types of projects a little money goes a long way. There is no telling now where that money is going to end up.
We will know tomorrow, I guess..
[...] Infrastructurist predicts four winners. [...]
Gee, out of $780+ billion, they only have $8 billion for something actually useful? Dummies…
If you took all $8 billion, you could implement identified projects that would improve speeds on the existing northeast corridor. That would seem to me to be a useful outcome. Instead they are going to sprinkle too little money to accomplish anything in order to eventually build a super train between Tampa and Orlando. Has the entire world gone crazy?
Man, no love from Infrastructurist for SEHSR, despite North Carolina’s and Virginia’s state investments into passenger rail improvements.
i look at the sprinkling this way: it will encourage states who haven’t had any interest in state-sponsored service dip their toes into the water to get future federal funding, versus creating the perception that only states with enough money (or population) for bullet trains need apply. our first problem with train service is simple coverage. speed and frequency come afterward.
The main thing that Virginia needs right now is to triple-track from DC to Richmond. They have already done some of this, but a modest amount of money would let them finish this sooner rather than later.
Some information is up at the White House website:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-high-speed-intercity-passenger-rail-program-iowa
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-high-speed-intercity-passenger-rail-program-cleveland-columbus
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-high-speed-intercity-passenger-rail-program-charlotte-raleigh-richmond-w
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-high-speed-intercity-passenger-rail-program-california“>Fact Sheet: High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program: California
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-high-speed-intercity-passenger-rail-program-minneapolisst-paul-madison-m
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-high-speed-intercity-passenger-rail-program-chicago-st-louis-kansas-city
Nothing about Florida however.
Woo yeah!
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14281242
Cali gets $2.5B to kick it off! This pleases me tremendously as I abhor the drive from the Bay Area down to Southern California with a white hot passion. They’ve been kicking around this HSR plan for so long I can’t tell you how nice it will be to see this finally get underway.
I agree with Dave. Sprinkling is done intentionally to get more states to invest in HSR.
I look forward to hearing the results. Crossing my fingers that CA gets a large (and well-deserved) chunk.
theres what makes sense and what makes sense politically. politically you have to spread it around the country including traditionally un-rail friendly red states. either way I’m sure we’ll hear lots of screams over this money tomorrow from the right wing nutjobs.
Heres the list: http://tinyurl.com/yb3cr83
This is ridiculous. The Federal government can and should pay for all of it. A $20 billion per year, or $120 billion investment during the six year transportation funding cycle is perfectly reasonable. It could be paid for by reinstating the estate tax.
That would about pay for:
1. California–$40 billion.
2. Chicago-Milwaukee-Minneapolis $15 billion.
3. Miami to Jacksonville $15 billion.
4. Atlanta to Charlotte $12 billion.
5. Major upgrade to Acela $10 billion.
6. Phoenix to San Diego $10 billion.
7. Texas T-bone $15 billion
8. Tulsa to Oklahoma City $5 billion.
That would be a good start.
As per yesterday’s report by this site, this would create roughly 200,000 to 250,000 jobs while the projects are pending. Not that much, really, but helpful. Besides, we really need the infrastructure improvment, and we will do this sooner or later (at a much higher price).
Eric F: no, it’s not crazy. The central problem is that Amtrak, too, lacks vision. It’s proposing to spend HSR money on Moynihan Station, rebuilding the Hell Gate Bridge, and quadrupling the curviest tracks in Maryland instead of bypassing them.
The NEC is like Texas HSR. In principle, it’s a great HSR corridor, but the specific ideas are rotten. Amtrak’s wasting its money on prestige stations; Texas is proposing to run only to airports rather than to city centers.
New York shouldn’t get any money, their legislature already proved that NY HSR is pork for high unemployment rural areas, with no results to show, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turboliner
New York also has buy New York rules, which guarantee that only Alstom, Kawasaki, and Bombardier could ever win any contracts and no new ideas are allowed in. Thats crooked IMO. “if you want to play, you have to pay”
Amtrak isn’t in any position to operate any passenger rail in the USA until they get over their 19th century railroad barron attitude and realize just like cruise nee-passenger ship industry, the train needs to be an experience, not sardine can transport of human freight. If you choose a sardine can experience, airplanes are much faster for a lower cost. Amtrak’s mission seems to be to save face only, so that there “is” passenger rail in the USA, rather than embarrassingly “no” passenger rail.
Eric F:
This money isn’t meant to move any dirt. It just goes to local politically connected transportation consulting firms for endless studies to comply with 10s of Americans laws which can and probably will derail any government construction project.
In my opinion, California and Florida are the only 2 projects which have a chance in hell of opening service.
NY and California one certainly has to grant as some of the worthiest candidates, but Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri could certainly be seen as more than a bit politically motivated. These are all very purple states that could swing one way or the other in coming years.
[...] grant. The Infrastructurist had speculated that out of all the contenders, Texas would likely get the shaft, but Fort Worth is expected to receive just a tiny bit. We’ll bring you more as soon as we [...]
How would one get to the train in Tampa, and what would one do after exiting the train in Orlando?
If you go through all of the fact sheets on the White House website, you get a sense of where the money is going:
California: $2,344,000,000
Florida: $1,250,000,000
Northeast: $1,191,000,000
Missouri: $1,133,000,000
Wisconsin: $823,000,000
North Carolina: $620,000,000
Washington State: $598,000,000
Ohio: $400,000,000
Michigan: $244,000,000
Iowa: $17,000,000
Texas: $4,000,000
There is a balance here between true HSR and reducing congestion and increasing speeds for the existing system.
[...] Infrastructurist [...]
Eric F: one would drive to the station, park, and then rent a car at the other end. Or one is going to fly out, or go to Disneyworld. Yes, it’s bad, and it’s not going to get high ridership. SNCF is projecting it’s not going to come close to paying back the construction bonds, even after including positive externalities – it only makes sense after including consumer surplus, i.e. it’s a subsidy to riders from the rest of the state.
The only merits of the Florida project are that it’s a decent demonstration line for the technology, and that it could be extended into downtown Orlando and Tampa and to Miami in the future. Sadly, this is more merit than the Upstate New York and Chicago-St. Louis porkfests have.
Alon, a lot of people say that Los Angeles has bad transit. However, once you get off in at LA Union Station, you’ve got commuter rail lines in five directions (three on weekends), Intercity rail in two directions, a subway in two directions (by 2020-2030 hopefully one of them will go all the way to Santa Monica), light rail in two directions (hopefully by 2020-2030 the regional connector will be done to expand connectivity), an express bus to LAX, a robust rapid bus system and a myriad of local buses.
You could also rent a car there if you wanted to.
I would also like to propose that Amtrak buses serve HSR. Right now you can only ride on Amtrak buses if your travel includes an Amtrak train segment. Once HSR is built, these Amtrak buses should be contracted to connect to as many HSR trains as reasonably possible and show up in the schedule when you book your HSR trip.
As we get closer to construction, it makes sense to examine the reservation system used by whoever operates the damn thing. We need to encourage that connecting transit is not only robust, but present in the reservation system.
So included on your HSR ticket would be proof of payment, for say, Metrolink (the Metrolink portion would be non-refundable since Metrolink tickets are non-refundable) if you added it on. I don’t know, something like that.
Yes, LA has decent transit if all you want to get to is LAUS. From the point of view of HSR, it’s good enough. Though I’d still feel happier about it if the MTA had concrete plans to extend local rail to feed Norwalk and Burbank stations, instead of Burbank Airport.
However, Orlando is not LA. It doesn’t even have the level of transit offered by the Red Line and Metrolink.
Moynihan Station is dead..NY does not have the money to flip the 2 billion dollar Bill. No HSR funds…none….They do not even have the proper enviormentall impact statements completed.
One more important aspect…its a landmark. MORONS
@Sean,
Actually Illinois has been a reliably blue state for 2 decades, significantly bluer than Calfornia.