by afiggatt
electricron wrote: While great for Amtrak and Piedmont trains, how long it took to start shows that many of the rail projects were not construction ready. Emergency funds for stimulating the economy during a recession to get people back to work wasn't spent until long after the recession was over. Poor timing.The $8 billion in stimulus funds for passenger rail were not for "shovel ready" projects, but for long term investments in infrastructure. It was expected that it would a take a while before construction would start and be completed, hence the September 2017 deadline for expending the $8 billion. However, it has a lot longer, even for most of the straightforward projects, to advance to construction than I think Congress and the White House staff expected when they threw in the $8 billion for passenger rail.