NJ-ARP Hotline #615
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

• "Transportation for Tomorrow" Report Touts Rail
• TransAction 2008 Date, Location Announced

"Transportation for Tomorrow" Report Touts Rail

Passenger rail was one of many components cited Tuesday, Jan. 15, by "Transportation for Tomorrow," a report by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. The commission's nine majority members stressed that investment was a requirement, since the current U.S. transportation network, once holding excess capacity, is now "bursting at the seams." And three members singled out passenger rail needs in detail.

Three members of the 12-member panel, including U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, who chaired the group, did not attend the press conference, instead issuing a minority report that among other items rejected the idea of increased motor fuels taxation and an increased federal role in national transportation.

But at the press conference in Washington, D.C., Vice Chair Jack Schenendorf, Of Counsel, Covington and Burling, LLP, said the majority of the panel held a contrary view. "The federal government needs to be a full partner. The job is too big for the state and local governments, and the private sector, to do by themselves." The job's size, the panel said, was $225 billion to $340 billion per year for infrastructure repair and expansion, and "we currently are spending less than 40% of that," Schenendorf said. "We have to increase our investment and close this gap."

Schenendorf listed the panel's implementation strategy, which includes 10 new programs, modally neutral, that "are genuinely focused on programs that are in the national interest," addressing repair, congestion, freight capacity, safety, and environmental issues, and also including intercity passenger rail for 13-to-15 "world-class, high speed rail" corridors.

Wisconsin DOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi cited increasing demand for Amtrak intercity service during the commission's two years existence. "The landscape has changed dramatically. We need to move to mass transit in this country," he said. "It will not be a quick fix [but] more and more people in this country want intercity passenger rail; they want more mass transit. It's not just about roads," and all surface transport modes should be treated and funded in similar fashion.

Paul Weyrich, chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation and known to many rail advocates for his strong pro-passenger outlook, added that the nation "will increasingly be dependent on electrified rail. That is not fungible, as this administration claims it is." He stressed, "In other words, we can't talk about light rail and Bus Rapid Transit as equal; they're not."

The panel recommended removing restrictions on various options state and local governments might consider, including congestion pricing for Interstate highways and/or a vehicle-miles-traveled tax, for long-term options.

In the short run, the majority recommended methodical increases in the motor fuels tax each year for five years amounting to an increase of 25-to-40 cents per gallon. That dwarfs any comparable gas tax increase being considered by the state of New Jersey as it wrestles with both a transportation and balanced-budget problem.

"We think we shouldn't rely on just the motor fuels tax," Schenendorf cautioned. Schenendorf said the long-term price tag for each American was 41-to-66 cents per day, "less than a candy bar."

Economic reality will force some of the change and provide urgency as well, said Frank McArdle, senior advisor of the General Contractors Association of New York. "Right now, our transportation system is 97% dependent on petroleum; [transportation uses] two-thirds of all the petroleum used in the United States, 16% of the world's oil production. That's what we do now and it is simply not sustainable."

McArdle, along with other panelists, suggested that Americans today had benefited from investments made long ago by their great-grandparents, and that it was time once more for the nation to think of long-term consequences and benefits. Among other suggestions, the panel recommended money and incentives for alternative fuels research, including incentives "to encourage fleet turnover" to best adapt to expanding options.

The National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) issued a statement following the press conference praising the panel's work. "This long-awaited report takes a hard look at the quality-of-life, economic, environmental, and energy consequences of our current transportation policy and maps out a realistic strategy to address current and upcoming needs," said Ross Capon, NARP executive director, who served as a member of the Passenger Rail Working Group, whose results were forwarded to the larger "Transportation for Tomorrow" effort. Capon, who attended the press conference, noted that the passenger rail portion of "Transportation for Tomorrow" builds on a proposal introduced in June of 2007 by NARP.

TransAction 2008 Set

Mark April 2-4, 2008 -- Wednesday through Friday -- for this year's TransAction conference in Atlantic City. The event this year will take place at a new location, the Taj Mahal and Casino.

Additional details are sketchy at this time, but NJ-ARP, per norm, will register for the conference as an exhibitor and will have officers present at the show -- and possibly as panelists -- to keep passenger rail upfront as a transportation choice for New Jersey's future.

January Observations on the Way Soon

NJ-ARP's January OBSERVATIONS should be mailed next week; Sustaining and Patron members will receive an update on Jersey City's varied light rail transit (LRT) plans, among other items.

Back on track after a month's hiatus, NJ-ARP's Hotline is normally updated weekly, more often as events warrant. Thank you for checking in.

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