DOT ready to talk about future of rail

Yesterday, the Infrastructure Technology Institute held its Annual William O. Lipinski Symposium on Transportation Policy. Their theme? Moving the Goods: Chicago and the Nation's Freight. In my address to the symposium, I told them that DOT is fully engaged in revitalizing and modernizing the nation's rail systems.

Rail offers us value--in safety, in fuel-efficiency, and in environmental benefits--and this nation cannot afford to overlook that value.

Rather, we need to embrace it and reconfigure rail transportation for the 21st century. This Administration will not leave the future of railroads in this country to chance.

That's why we recently released a preliminary national rail plan. But, that's also why we're reaching out to the rail industry, to state and local governments, and to other stakeholders.

We want to identify new opportunities, find creative ways to address our challenges, and encourage public and private entities to work together on effective rail strategies.

In the 1800s, this nation built a rail system that fit its needs at the time and fostered economic growth. Well, our needs may have changed, but this DOT is going to make sure that our passenger and freight rail systems are just as relevant to the future of our economy.

Comments

[Lawrence H Kaufman]

With all due respect, Mr. Secretary, all we have had since DOT was created was talk about the future of rail. Now, we have a "preliminary" rail plan. It is time for results; you should be driving your department to go beyond talk of rail.

[Michael E. Bailey]

The railroads are the most fuel efficient form of transporation we have and getting more fuel efficient and cleaner operating all the time. CalEPA is working with the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and Burlington Northern-Santa Fe and Union Pacific Railroads on an idea for a maglev freight railroad to move containers from the ports docks to the near-dock rail terminals. They are also looking at electrification of all rail lines in the Los Angeles Basin. Burlington Northern-Santa Fe now has an all hydrogen powered locomotive working in its Los Angeles Train Yards. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Hedgelender]

YES, we need this!

[Rob]

The best prescription for congestion relief and a safer and more sustainable transportation future in urban areas: Create or expand passenger rail, use pricing strategies on *all* existing urban highway lanes to encourage mode shift, and use the tolls to support both highway and rail operations. Finally, change federal transportation policy such that transit is favored over highways. We need people to choose to get our of their cars, not more lanes to make it more convenient for relatively short periods of time, i.e., until the next highway expansion is necessary due to degraged performance of new lanes.