General US High Speed Rail Discussion

So does this mean that the third track from Arkendale to Powell Creek in Virginia, the crossovers in NC, and any other projects on CSX tracks will not be built?

FRA is requiring conditions from the freight railroads related to future on-time performance of passenger trains if improvements are to be made on their tracks. The goal is to make sure that freight railroads will not turn around and use these track improvements to help their freight business while letting passenger trains suffer the same delays as always.

Other Class 1 railroads (NS in NC, BNSF in WA, and UP in IL) all showed some reluctance to sign the agreements.

http://appropriations.house.gov/_files/ ... 2011CR.pdf

It is being reported now that the reduction to HSR appropriation in the continuing resolution is $2.9 billion. It says that all the FY2011 HSR money is now rescinded, plus $400 million from previous years. That means that there is now $2 billion left to reallocate from Florida.

Kansas was going to go after some of that money for their 79MPH Heartland Flyer Extension.

Time for a song.

I saw that, too. The summary orulz cites says, "For the Department of Transportation, the bill eliminates new funding for High Speed Rail and rescinds $400 million in previous year funds, for a total reduction of $2.9 billion from fiscal year 2010 levels." However, while I'm hardly a budget expert, I don't think the second half of that sentence (beginning with "for a total reduction...") is, strictly speaking, accurate.

Yes, it's true that Sec. 2221 of the bill says that "the level for “Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Capital Assistance for High Speed Rail Corridors and Intercity Passenger Rail Service” shall be $0." And Sec. 2222 says, "Of the prior year unobligated balances available for “Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Capital Assistance for High Speed Rail Corridors and Intercity Passenger Rail Service”, $400,000,000 is rescinded."

However, from October 1 until April 8, under the previous Continuing Resolutions, high-speed rail capital assistance had been funded at a rate equal to the 2010 appropriation of 2.5 billion--over those 28 weeks, the program had already received $1.346 billion. Then, from April 8 to April 15th, under the continuing resolution that is part of the budget deal reached last Friday and which is funding the government while Congress "considers" this final appropriation bill, high-speed rail is funded at a pro-rated of $1 billion annually, meaning the appropriation for the week is $19 million. So when the final bill takes effect on Friday, high-speed rail will already have received nearly $1.4 billion for the year -- so a zero appropriation and a $400 million recission would seem to be the way you get to the $1 billion agreement reported earlier.

But, again, I'm hardly an expert. For those who want to double check my work, here are the previous continuing resolutions, in the order they took effect.
Public Law No 111-242 (enacted September 30, 2010, funded the government through December 3)
Public Law No 111-290 (enacted December 4; funded the government through December 18)
Public Law No 111-317 (enacted December 18; funded the government through December 21)
Public Law No 111-322 (enacted December 21; funded the government through March 4, 2011)
Public Law No 112-4 (enacted March 2; funded the government through March 18)
Public Law No 112-6 (enacted March 18; funded the government through April 8)
Public Law No 112-8 (enacted April 9; funds the government through April 15)

Unless the railroad in question Is the fictional Taggart Transcontinental in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged, no rail enterprise is going to reject co-operation with the public sector outright. CSX. like all the other freight carriers, will co-operate where it thinks it will get what it perceives as a fair return for its efforts, AND where it can't be made the "fall guy" in the eyes of a more-diverse, more-feminized, more-sensitized public which has much less familiarity with the demands and limitations of rail operation than was the case two generations ago.

Major infrastuctural upgrades within a densely-settled and often politically-hostile locality mandate public/private sector cooperation. But the current administration is clearly within the thrall of those primarily, nearly exclusively, at the opposite pole of the spectrum from those with a career-long familarity with what is, and is not possible, and within what time frame. The background of most of the higher-ups of the present Administration, as most readily demonstrated by the President himself, is strong evidence that there is a huge gap to be bridged.

Those of us here who have a long-standing familiarity with the development of the NEC would, I believe, cite the Chase disaster of 1989 as the pivotal event in the development of what passes for HSR in present-day America. From that moment forward, Federal scrutiny of day-to-day passenger rail operation intensified, and as with the mis-perception of the nature of the market in Amtrak's founding days, what has been described as a "Faustian pact" was sealed. No one with a basic free-market orientation wants to see a "third strike".

So apparently all the money for this year plus $400 million from last year is in fact gone. From the New York Times:

The depth of the cut in the budget deal came as something of a surprise. As late as Monday afternoon, an administration official had said that there would still be $1 billion available for high-speed rail this year — a cut from the $2.5 billion in last year’s budget, and the $8 billion in rail money in the stimulus bill that got the program started.

But when the budget bill was released overnight, that money was gone...

So the question is, how could the administration not have seen this coming, or not known how the deal would actually affect one of its highest visibility projects?

That was quick. In his speech on reducing deficits, which he is giving right now, President Obama is outlining a four-step approach to reduce deficit spending by $4 trillion over 12 years:

The first step in our approach is to keep annual domestic spending low by building on the savings that both parties agreed to last week – a step that will save us about $750 billion over twelve years. We will make the tough cuts necessary to achieve these savings, including in programs I care about, but I will not sacrifice the core investments we need to grow and create jobs. We’ll invest in medical research and clean energy technology. We’ll invest in new roads and airports and broadband access. We will invest in education and job training. We will do what we need to compete and we will win the future.

High-speed rail is apparently no longer a core investment, on par with roads and airports...

Some of the States that said "No, thank you" based on not trusting the Federal commitment to funding may not have been too far off the mark after all...

I dont think they said no thank you on account of doubting the federal contribution , it was no thank you based on doubting their own abiltiy to meet ongoing maintenane and running costs .
to rescind funds already allocated to states ( and the state has agreed to take it ) , that should be munity material .
Really , is there no uproar at all over this atroscious behaviour . maybe Lou Reed's friend Donald was right .

David Benton wrote:I dont think they said no thank you on account of doubting the federal contribution , it was no thank you based on doubting their own abiltiy to meet ongoing maintenane and running costs .
to rescind funds already allocated to states ( and the state has agreed to take it ) , that should be munity material .
Really , is there no uproar at all over this atroscious behaviour . maybe Lou Reed's friend Donald was right .

Who that?

If they put the HSR building into the military budget no-one would notice it.

george matthews wrote:If they put the HSR building into the military budget no-one would notice it.

And we all know how essential to national defense are high speed trains...

jb9152 wrote:

george matthews wrote:If they put the HSR building into the military budget no-one would notice it.

And we all know how essential to national defense are high speed trains...

Hey...think of the possibilities if you could drop $6B engineering an Acela stealth bomber that can launch missiles at 150 MPH.

David Benton wrote:to rescind funds already allocated to states ( and the state has agreed to take it ) , that should be munity material .

But in this case, the State of Florida has rejected $800 million of the FY 2010 budget allocation, so rescinding $400 million just means there is less to be reallocated to other states.

jb9152 wrote:

george matthews wrote:If they put the HSR building into the military budget no-one would notice it.

And we all know how essential to national defense are high speed trains...

Isn't there something called the US army corps of engineers that build canals and dams? High Speed trains are much more important than those.

george matthews wrote:

jb9152 wrote:

george matthews wrote:If they put the HSR building into the military budget no-one would notice it.

And we all know how essential to national defense are high speed trains...

Isn't there something called the US army corps of engineers that build canals and dams? High Speed trains are much more important than those.

Unless, of course, you want to POWER those trains with something other than coal.