UPDATE:
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has reversed his position on taking stimulus funds for railroad improvements. He's now asking for $150 million to upgrade the existing Amtrak lines in the state from funds regected by Scott of Florida. The sad irony is that Walker only seeks some improvements to an old line and not funds to implement high speed rail.
I cannot help but think that had Walker and Scott and the other tea partiers been around back in the 19th century we'd still all be riding in buggies pulled by horses and the next century would not have become the America Century, built on our leadership in developing working technology. In fact, had the tea parties been at the original tea party, we probably would have never thrown off the British crown. For all their talk of freedom, they prefer to prop up an authoritarian ruling class and detest modernization and change.
Note in the link above, that the Milwaukee Jounal-Sentinal is reporting that Walker's decision to seek funding to repair an old line will cost his state 16 times more than its share of the high speed rail costs. Thus, it appears that none of republicans' rejection of stimulus funding, particularly for high speed rail, has anything to do with deficit reduction or business building. It's just the old racist hatred for Obama and greed, grasping every dime in the country for a few wealthy insiders, and that my friends is the beginning of the American 21st Century. The rest of the world (see here too) is moving on without us. Republicans forced rejection of a national high speed rail system. If we don't reverse our course, the 21st century will ultimately belong to someone else.
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Republicans say they're great at business, but I'm not so sure. They work to contract our economy more than grow it and work to contract local businesses more than grow them. Seems to me they won't be happy until all our rural areas are depopulated, our downtowns are shuttered and our shopping districts are empty.
The prime examples are the Republican state governors, including Rick Scott and Scott Walker in Wisconsin, both of whom threw away high speed rail money. I'm thinking Illinois will be glad we took the funds and built the rails when all is built and operating. First, it will make it easier to take jobs around the state, but live where you want. The last census showed that downstate Illinois lost a lot of population over the past decade, but the collar counties grew. I was down that several times over the decade and saw that the young people were moving out because they couldn't get jobs. High speed rail should make it easier to work in the City or collar counties and then go home to a more rural area.
Second, high speed rail will make business traveling and tourism a whole lot easier and cheaper with high (and probably over the top) security in airports, high (and probably over the top) airline ticket costs and high (and probably over the top) gas prices. A Chicago to Springfield to St. Louis line has promise for business commuters, business deliveries and tourism.
Here in my neck of the woods, people have been barraged by tea party emails urging them to speak against high speed rail projects. In fact, a couple of them attended Karen May's townhall in Deerfield this morning. It's fairly easy to pick them out because they tend to use the same exact language you see from the tea party websites. They say the plan is too expensive, a luxury and won't be used. If it's done, it should be done by private interests and only when they become interested in it.
May responded with a story about a recent trip she took by train to Springfield with Rep. Gabel from Evanston. They got stuck on a train waiting for another train hauling freight and through no fault of their own held up the session.
What I know is that in my international law days, our international clients used to point at our trains and laugh. The rest of the developed world has had reliable, well used high speed rail for years. These countries have all subsidized their systems. That's because trains work best when they work together.
Interestingly, one of the largest proponents of federally subsidized railroads was that great Republican Abraham Lincoln. He signed the Pacific Railway Bill of 1862. The real problem was not that they subsidized rail in the 19th century, but that they did it wrong, as Republicans are still prone to do in our time. They subsidized the costs (not to mention subsidizing wars against the indigent people for their lands to be given--not sold or rented--but given to the railroads) and privatized the profits (rent-free land, ownership of the ticket payments).
What I also know is that people want to use our current trains, but don't always for several reasons. May's story about the train waiting on freight is the big story on this topic. Our passenger trains are 2d in line to freight, often putting them hours behind schedule.
The other story is that the trains in the Midwest are filthy. About 10 years ago I traveled by Amtrak from Chicago to Minneapolis. During the eight hour trip (delayed as usual), I went to the concession car to buy some bottled water. The water bottle given to me was so dirty that I didn't want to open it and drink from it. The toilets didn't smell too good either. I arrived at my destination late, tired, thirsty and feeling rather ill. If we created a new national high speed rail system, I would have arrived at my distination much faster and probably would have purchased food and drink on the train--hey isn't that doing business?
Nonetheless, even with our old, slow and stinky trains, people are using them. The Amtrak side of Union Station is packed on Friday afternoons, much more so than years ago.
I've heard from East coast train riders that their trains are far better than ours in the Midwest. I think it's a use cycle. When the system is used less frequently, it goes downhill. The decline causes even less usage.
They always used their trains on the east coast, but we didn't here probably because attractive destinations were farther away, but things have changed. The hub and spoke system used in airline travel has failed our smaller cities. It's a real project to get to a smaller city with plane changes and layovers. That's not to mention the hassles of airport security and the little safety problem airlines have created by not taking care of their planes. Also, gas prices are a lot higher, approaching $4/gallon this spring. There is a good argument that Americans are ready to ride the rails again.
As my dad points out, trains can be more convenient for business people because they go from a city's downtown area to another city's downtown area. Airports go from outskirts to outskirts and required large taxi fares and a lot of time to get to an ultimate location.
This evening my dad told me a story about a train ride he took with his father years ago from Chicago to New York. They got on the train at about 4:00pm. A few hours later, they ate a terrific meal in a clean and comfortable dining car. Dad told me that Grandpa Paul met a famous movie actor of the time, Ray Miland, and shared a drink with him in the club car. Some time the next day, they hit Penn Station and were right where they wanted to be in Mid-Town Manhattan. Rail travel was elegant, convenient and fun. It can be that way again, but this time faster.
My dad also points out, and I quoted him at the meeting this morning, "businesses have to try harder when the economy is bad." If you stop building your business, you fail. The downtimes have to be looked at as opportunities to reallocate resources and spend to increase market share. So, when the economy improves, you are ready for business, and will take a greater share of the larger pot. That's what I think is going to happen in this country. The states that build the high speed rail systems will be poised for success. The right wing idealogues who force austerity in their states won't participate in the next upswing. I hope they don't expect us to pay them welfare.
Few in the audience, including Rep.May, were buying what the naysayers were selling. It's a tough sell for them, selling technological and economic stagnation in a world that wants to keep moving forward.
I congratulate May for having the farsightedness to support high speed rail in Illinois and the courage to speak out in favor of it when they has been so much media and money spent to kill the project to the benefit of really no one.
I've posted more about the Deerfield town hall in my previous post.
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