Trump's DOT Pick: Sean Duffy

https://www.npr.org/2024/11/18/nx-s1-51 ... uffy-trump

Duffy served eight years in the House representing Wisconsin, and was a DA for eight years before that. Objectively, his 16 years in public service seems to be about double what Mayor Pete had before he was named to head the DOT.

Not clear what his current positions are, but he did vote for the 2015 bill to eliminate all Federal funding for Amtrak.

As The Times reports, another Fox "host" joins President-Elect Trump's Cabinet:

Fair Use:

A former Wisconsin congressman and Fox Business host, Sean Duffy, was selected by President-elect Donald J. Trump on Monday to lead the Transportation Department.

In a statement announcing his choice, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Duffy as a “tremendous and well-liked public servant” with the experience needed to lead the department, which has an annual budget of more than $100 billion and a vast work force.

“Sean will use his experience and the relationships he has built over many years in Congress to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and usher in a golden age of travel,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.

I think that Amtrak and other passenger train interests had best be happy "they got what they got" during Joe's term, for it looks like a 1441 day "Siberian Winter" is about to set in.

Empty rhetoric about building "the best infrastructure the world has ever seen, believe me" masking a great dismantling and some very dark times ahead I'm afraid.

The Fox "host" comments are intentionally derogatory. There's a reason they paid him on to comment on-air about government policies... he served 16 years in public service as a DA and House member.



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Matt Johnson wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2024 8:37 am Empty rhetoric about building "the best infrastructure the world has ever seen, believe me" masking a great dismantling and some very dark times ahead I'm afraid.

You mean like the other "infrastructure weeks" during his last term, where nothing was built?
We'll be seeing what the Grand Vizer (which is what Musk wants to be) is able to do, when going against every other auto manufaturer , the chamber of commerce, etc. I'm sure he's going to push the narrow urethrae in vegas as a mass transit solution.

And, pray tell, how much of Sleepy Joe's infrastructure has actually materialized?....

I'm sure a bunch of consultants got their serving at the trough, but it seems there are maybe a couple dozen charging stations by now for the $7.5 billion allocated in 2021 last I heard, and CAHSR is still not much closer to completion than when Trump first called out their missed deadlines four years ago, despite Biden giving them another $3.1 billion.

Of the two sins - talking about infrastructure, and actually allocating billions for infrastructure and having nothing to show for it, I think I prefer the all talk approach.


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The bill was only passed in 2021. While I agree with the sentiment that stuff in this country takes way too long to do, that doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything. There is a whole list of things that are well underway from just the rail portion of the infrastructure bill and a list of a bunch of others that will be done by the time Trump is out of office. The big rail one that was basically shovel ready, Portal North, is 70% complete. Many of the others hadn't had design done yet so you're not going to have complete projects just 3 years after enactment. Nothing works that fast.

Is stuff too slow? Yes it is, but rather than cancel everything in the Infrastructure Bill (which is highly unlikely to get through a Senate filibuster anyway) Trump ought to take down some of the bureaucratic barriers and red tape and get some of these now funded projects done quicker (if getting rid of red tape is really what he believes in) and then he can take credit for the infrastructure. Which I'd be all for.

Yeah spare me on the paper thin rhetoric. How'd the messiah Obama and Sleepy Joe do 08-16 for Amtrak? Some really cool Illinois HSR stickers on some amfleets for the world's best passing tracks in Dwight and Pontiac? Get outta town. 12 years of hope and nothing else.

It's not just red tape, though. It's who is managing the projects.

Case and point: Brightline will accomplish more in 4 years from Las Vegas than CAHSR will have accomplished in 16 years, and has to adhere to the same regulations and didn't have the same power to condemn properties thru eminent domain that the state agency would have had.

Tadman wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2024 3:30 pm Yeah spare me on the paper thin rhetoric. How'd the messiah Obama and Sleepy Joe do 08-16 for Amtrak? Some really cool Illinois HSR stickers on some amfleets for the world's best passing tracks in Dwight and Pontiac? Get outta town. 12 years of hope and nothing else.

The fact that we got 110 mph Chicago - St Louis, 110 mph New Haven - Springfield, California HSR under construction, and various other route upgrades as well as significant fleet renewal was a minor miracle. That Republicans killed efforts in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Florida is an indication of what's to come for the nation imo. We'll see, but I'll be surprised if the next 4 years aren't disastrous for Amtrak and transit in general.

eolesen wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2024 3:43 pm It's not just red tape, though. It's who is managing the projects.

Case and point: Brightline will accomplish more in 4 years from Las Vegas than CAHSR will have accomplished in 16 years, and has to adhere to the same regulations and didn't have the same power to condemn properties thru eminent domain that the state agency would have had.

Brightline doesn't have dozens of consulting firms they are beholden to that that need to pay off with make-do work.

eolesen wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2024 3:43 pm It's not just red tape, though. It's who is managing the projects.

Case and point: Brightline will accomplish more in 4 years from Las Vegas than CAHSR will have accomplished in 16 years, and has to adhere to the same regulations and didn't have the same power to condemn properties thru eminent domain that the state agency would have had.

Brightline has a few orders of magnitude less property owners to deal with than CAHSR (the overwhelming majority of Brightline's ROW is on property being leased from 2 states); condemning land is not a fast process if the owner has any objections, and Brightline is taking over from a project that started the planning process in 2005, so it'll be what, 23 years since the Brightline West project started assuming Brightline West opens on time in 2028?

Tadman wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2024 3:30 pm Yeah spare me on the paper thin rhetoric. How'd the messiah Obama and Sleepy Joe do 08-16 for Amtrak? Some really cool Illinois HSR stickers on some amfleets for the world's best passing tracks in Dwight and Pontiac? Get outta town. 12 years of hope and nothing else.

My local corridor (New Haven - Springfield) got done. Went from an irrelevant line to 20+ trains a day that I use all the time. You literally have billions of much needed work on the NEC underway. And basically replacing all the Amtrak fleet is in the pipeline. And as mentioned in a previous post funding to enable Brightline West. Is it all sexy flashy new stuff? Maybe not but it’s all stuff that needed to get done. There’s also three more years of grant awards from the program.

west point wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2024 9:01 pm Just read something not believable. CA HSR still needs to purchase some real estate. No wonder some of the delays. Now New Haven - Hartford did not need real estate except maybe some new stations. But some real estate has been purchased for Hartford - Springfield.

The recently funded project for New Haven - Springfield has three components.
- The first just south of Hartford will extend the double track a bit further north - 1.7 miles closer to the Hartford station. They are replacing the existing industrial freight siding with a second main from the current Wood interlocking at MP 33.4 to a new Park interlocking at MP 35.1.
- The second will extend the track 2 main north from the current Hayden interlocking at MP 46.2 to the new track 2 installation at the new Windsor Locks Station at MP 48.6. The new Windsor Locks station includes a second track and new interlocking just south of the Connecticut River Bridge.
- The third will establish a 1.5 mile second track segment in Enfield from MP 51.5 to MP 53.1. Eventually they plan to build an Enfield station at MP 54.1 which will be single track. From MP 53.1 to the existing Field interlocking will remain single tracked in order to accomodate the Enfield station. This segment will be dispatched at first as a passing siding. When the Connecticut River Bridge is eventually replaced it will most likely include a final second track segment that would connect this to the second segment mentioned above.

CTDOT also got an early design grant for the Hartford Station relocation that would fill in another gap in the double track.

And finally Amtrak got an early design grant for the aforementioned Connecticut River Bridge replacement.