High Speed Rail in US?

Posted by admin on February 17, 2009 under Congress, Economy, Presidency, Science, news | 3 Comments to Read

Buried in the $800 Billion stimulus package is $8 Billion for high speed rail in the United States. It’s the most serious investment in commuter rail service in the nations history.

Additionally President Obama intends to ask for a further $1 Billion a year for high speed rail in his budget request to congress, starting with the 2010 budget.

High speed rail was one of Obama’s campaign pledges, speaking in Indiana during the campaign he said:

“The time is right now for us to start thinking about high-speed rail as an alternative to air transportation connecting all these cities. And think about what a great project that would be in terms of rebuilding America.”(Source)

Despite this campaign pledge apparently Congressional Republicans apparently overlooked the importance of High Speed Rail to the president as they tried to stymie all the major projects that the President was looking for such as building new schools, or modernizing the energy grid.

Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine and Specter of Pennsylvania, Republican moderates who had criticized Obama’s school construction program were more accepting of the rail funds, since the Northeast corridor is a major beneficiary of rail improvements.

Rahm Emanuel said of the rail provision, “the president wanted to have a signature issue in the bill, his commitment for the future.” (Source)