Matt Yglesias flags an encouraging passage from Barack Obama's speech on competitiveness in Flint, MI, yesterday:
It's time to strengthen transportation and to protect vulnerable targets from terrorism at home. We can modernize our power grid, which will help conservation and spur on the development and distribution of clean energy. We can invest in rail, so that cities like Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis are connected by high-speed trains, and folks have alternatives to air travel. That's what we can do if we commit to rebuild a stronger America.
While Obama's plan for infrastructure investment does not begin to address the need, his emphasis on high-speed rail, especially in the Midwest, is a welcome sight. DCist has a good rundown of his history of advocating for mass transit as a state and federal lawmaker:
Sen. Obama has been quietly hailed as the candidate with the most forward positions on mass transportation. Of course, this really shouldn't come as any surprise, as the Illinois lawmaker has been interested in the topic for years - he petitioned for more efficient transit through low-income areas of Chicago in 2003, and mentioned in May of this year that he's had interest in copying the efficiency of the Northeast Corridor system in the Midwest: "One of the things I have been talking bout for awhile is high speed rail connecting all of these Midwest cities -- Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis." Speaking of Amtrak, Obama is a big supporter. He was a backer of the Lautenberg-Lott Amtrak bill in 2007, which would provide about $11.6 billion to Amtrak over the next six years.
John McCain, on the other hand doesn't have too much to say with regards to national transit infrastructure. Except that he hates Amtrak. It's pork, you see? And if elected, he's vowed to close down the whole system in favor of privately-owned rail companies, reportedly calling it a "non-negotiable issue."
So this self-professed environmental steward -- this purported Teddy Roosevelt of our day -- wants more drilling and less rail investment? No wonder McCain's moderate label is fading.
Anonymous on Tue, 06/17/2008 - 16:26
it's interesting that mccain wants to finish off amtrak.
amtrak, i believe, was created to remove the burden of providing passenger service from the cargo-carrying rail companies.
it was structured in such a manner as to make rail travel inconvenient, by giving cargo rail priority on the rail lines.
Amtrak was created to fail. Reinvesting in rail could very easily make Amtrak successful...and perhaps the government could partially privatize it in the future, once it is financially healthy and capable of operating independently.
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