Will it play in Galesburg? That's a question I don't need to ask about this Administration's Recovery Act investments in transportation. The answer is clear: "Yes, it will."
Yesterday, I talked with the Galesburg, Illinois, Chamber of Commerce about what stimulus spending had done for the community. As it has been everywhere I've had conversations like this, the response was very positive.
Why so positive? Because we've awarded $88 million in Recovery Act funds to help BNSF build a third main line and new storage tracks for freight cars in Galesburg. In turn, this will help Amtrak, which shares these rails, to better serve its passengers.
Making freight move faster takes trucks off the road. Making passenger trains move faster takes cars off the road. These systems are closely linked.
The Galesburg Chamber understands that people and goods--drivers, passengers, and freight--share the same infrastructure in America when traveling by highway and rail. And they appreciate that investment in freight may speed things along for passengers, that an investment in rail may help make things smoother for highways.
That's why we're so confident about the value of the investments we've been making through the Recovery Act; we're creating a smarter set of transportation systems for America.
In the Knox County area, there is a lot more to talk about:
- 11 road and bridge projects in Knox, Peoria, Stark, and Warren Counties;
- $3.6 million to refurbish the Quad Cities airport;
- Millions more for airports in Peoria, Springfield, Decatur, Chicago;
- 77,000 dollars to make Amtrak’s Galesburg facilities more accessible for older Americans and people with disabilities; and
- Nearly 600,000 dollars for a new bus, bus shelters, and other equipment to help modernize transit facilities in Galesburg.
All this activity is keeping people on the payroll. The road projects alone are creating more than 500 local jobs for Knox County and the surrounding area.
The Recovery Act is responsible for saving or creating 1 million jobs so far, with millions more jobs in the pipeline.
I’m proud to be part of an Administration that has set this in motion. I'm proud to be able to talk about these outcomes with the Galesburg Chamber of Commerce.
I don't have to worry about whether it will play in Peoria or Galesburg or anywhere. The Recovery Act results I'm talking about play everywhere.
This is great news. In many places, the ARRA is having a very positive impact on the economy. We are seeing ARRA roadwork being done here in Orange County and employing many construction workers. But there is a difference between ARRA money that is going for road improvements and money the OCTA Board of Directors has shown fit to take out of the bus operations fund and move to other uses. We are fighting OCTA plans to eliminate up to 26 bus routes, nearly eliminate fixed route buses and para transit service in south Orange County, and lay off an additional more than 200 bus drivers and mechanics all by March 2010. OCTA should redirect back to transit operations the money it took from transit to do other things with. This is not something new that is the result of this economic downturn, this is an old story that goes back at least as far as the Orange County Bankruptcy sometime ago when transit operations money was taken and used to help bailout the county. Also since last month when the 100,000 hour bus service cut went in, passengers are down not only because of job losses but because now the bus system has been made such that people can't depend on it to get to and from work like they could before September. The new service cuts proposed for March would wipe out another 300,000 bus service hours. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.
Posted by: Michael E. Bailey | October 22, 2009 at 12:42 AM