Washington – A day after delivering a State of the Union address aimed at showing recession-weary Americans he understands their struggles, President Obama intends to award $8 billion in stimulus funds to develop high-speed rail corridors and sell the program as a jobs creator.
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Obama and Vice President Joe Biden plan to announce grants for 13 major corridors during a town hall meeting in Tampa, Fla., Thursday, the president’s first public appearance following his speech to the nation. It’s an attempt by the White House to show that getting Americans back to work is the president’s top priority and that he has a plan for how to do it.
The president’s visit to the region means Florida’s proposal for a high-speed line connecting Orlando and Tampa is likely to receive funding. California’s proposal for an 800-mile-long rail line from Sacramento to San Diego and a nine-state proposal in the Midwest are also considered strong contenders.
The $8 billion in funding for high-speed trains and other passenger rail projects is part of the $787 billion recovery act. Besides the 13 corridors receiving grants, a White House official said several smaller awards will be made for improvements to existing rail lines. Overall, 31 states will receive funds.
The official said the projects are expected to create or save tens of thousands of jobs in areas like track-laying, manufacturing, planning and engineering, though there is no time frame for how long it will take for those jobs to develop. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak ahead of the president’s announcement.
Though the White House is quick to point out that the economy is no longer on the brink of a depression, as it was when Obama took office, stemming the free fall hasn’t translated into job growth. The unemployment rate has hovered near 10 percent for several months, while Obama’s approval ratings have dropped.
The primary focus of Mr. Obama’s State of the Union speech Wednesday night is expected be to the economy, with a focus on job creation.
Aides say he’ll reinforce that message in the coming weeks by laying out a number of job creation initiatives, the first of which will be the high-speed rail grant awards to be announced Thursday in Tampa. Trips to Maryland and New Hampshire will follow.
In Florida, a swing state Obama carried in the 2008 election, Obama will face a populace where more people disapprove of his performance than approve – 49 percent to 45 percent, according to a new Quinnipiac poll, the first time the numbers there have shifted in that direction since Obama’s election.
Even experts who favor high-speed rail question whether the awards Obama will announce Thursday can turn into the job generators the administration is hoping for. Because the U.S. has never had the kind of bullet trains found in Europe and Asia, there are no U.S. engineering companies or manufacturers with experience in high-speed rail. Anthony Perl, who heads the National Research Council’s panel on intercity passenger rails, said that means much of the technology will have to be purchased abroad.
At a rail manufacturing conference last year, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said more than 30 foreign and domestic companies have promised to establish or expand operations in the United States if they are chosen to build high-speed lines.
Still, high-speed rail experts say that if the administration spreads the $8 billion among more than a handful of projects, none of the projects will get enough money to get up and running.
“If they want this money to have an impact they are going to have to give a lot to a few states,” said lobbyist Tim Gillespie, who represents two large French rail companies.
how about from lakewood to the city that would br good
I love it ” create or Save” can u belive this ??? These guys aren’t even ashamed to sell us this load again
The lobbyist is quite correct. The land acquisition costs alone will be astronomical. These high speed lines need a right of way wide enough for at least two tracks, plus the necessary power substations, and the lines themselves must be relatively flat (there are significant hills in California that require track loops such as at Cajon Pass that would require the trains to slow down to far less than 50mph). California also has the geography issue in San Francisco to contend with (how do the trains get across the bay to get to Sacramento? A new tunnel? Use BART tunnels?). Texas might be a better choice (Dallas – Houston).
True, no North American company has the expertise to build such a line. Most of the people who know how to do this properly are working for Alsthom or the national railways in Europe, Japan or China. The Chinese are doing some very interesting things with high-speed rail, but so far that’s mainly for short-haul lines.
Bottom line is that without very high density on both ends and if the traffic matrix doesn’t support it, throwing 9 billion at this haphazardly will be a waste. Plan intelligently first!
This president can’t. Do anything right. As it seems obvious from the article most of the work is going to be outsourced. This will create jobs IN EUROPE! I want to cry…
This is a desparate man who sees the handwritting on the wall. Anything he says is only to save his butt. Don’t beleive a word, all he wants is universal heath care.
Better would be to spend the eight billion repairing the one high speed corridor that we have that does work: The Amtrak Northeast Corridor. But much of it is over a century old, bridges and tunnels need repairs, and there are even at-grade highway crossings in Connecticut! I’ve never seen a convincing explanation of how high speed rail can be economically viable in places with lower population densities than the Northeast.
Big talk, this will pay for about 8 miles of track
This is the same obama just talk.flying around and spending the peoples money obama keeps on forgetting that if you do not manufacture any thing in this country you can not simulate i can build train tracks with trainstrains that go no were it is just a wast of our money the peoples money like this obama and the democrates like to say
Mr Obama, STOP WASTING OURS MONEY!!!!
Please leave some over for the person who will be the next president in about 1100 days haba ah’lanu l’tova Ahmayn!
Obama has already told his political contributors and ACORN and the other Union Pals to buy the land that the US Govt will purchase to build the tracks. Shopping Centers and neighborhoods will be built there and the Democrat Machine’s allies will make millions from this corruption. Oh, the Peoples Republic of China National Railroad will surely build the equipment and the high speed trains. We will owe them on the money borrowed to buy the land and build the tracks. This will be great for the Peoples Republic of China. In the end, the US Federal Govt will be forced to sell it to the Peoples Republic of China when we become bankrupt.
baruch hashem, this will help create jobs not to metion increase efficiency , kol hakavod mister president (jobs for the workers building it and of course after when it is in operation…will increase business flow to local businessses and definitely boos the economy in a very broad way ie advertising, etc etc. a great investment in america)
in conjunction with warren buffet buying burlinton north rails maybe he had some inside information
Can’t they just fix the MTA?
to #11 : how much is the Obama administration paying to post these types of comments?. I see them all over the place. Might be a good way to solve the unemployment problem.
$8,000,000,000? Hmm… when was the last time I heard that figure? Oh yes, right; that’s how much we spend in Iraq — every month.
It’s a scam. Obama blows billions like he snorted cocaine up his nose in Law School.
A bullet train from Tampa to Orlando has been researched by the University of South Florida for twenty years plus. The conclusion was it would be a waste of money. I-4 connects both cities and they are only one hour by car. There is no efficient network of buses or public transportation in Orlando or Tampa. Therefore, tourists would need to rent a car anyhow. It is a boondogle waste of taxpayers money. The only winner is Govt contractors and Labor Unions. Owners of land used to build the trains will make billions.
#7 – Charlie, the Northeast Corridor actually has had a significant number of upgrades, and if it were not for the bottlenecks (e.g. Hudson River Tunnel, New Rochelle Interlocking, Philly Zoo Interlocking) and the tight curves on the New Haven line it would be a world-class railroad. Fixing those bottlenecks alone would cost about twice the amount of money they’re talking about here.
#14 – Ephraim – quite right, they’re doing some amazing things, including the maglev trains running at 300mph. It’s hugely improved over the way it was even 10 years ago, however, they’re still a totalitarian regime, so I wouldn’t necessarily call it a greater work ethic when the guys with jackboots are ready to pounce.
#12 – Metro North, LIRR are run OK, upgrades are happening. It’s a lot harder with subways – a lot of the signalling and power equipment is 70+ yrs old and there’s a lot of it, again, it would cost lots of money to fix. Combine that with the inept management and overly generous union contracts, and it’s not very likely you’ll see a tangible improvement.
How about just giving the money BACK to the people instead of wasting it away on mishigasin.
They couldn’t get AmTrack right & we expect them to get this right??
we don’t need super trains, we need better airport with less congestion
Isn’t a plane ride better
The article touches on a few topics annd i would like to comment on one of them. The part thatt talks about the impact this will have on jobs. It is a proven rule in the view of the marketing world: in order to sell you gotta havve products, so here we get mooney upfront (even if the money is a loan from whoknows who) it will create a work force taht will in turn create demend for goods, that will create more jobs in the process, to satsify the growing demend, and so on. In summary when you start turning the wheels it will turn the wheels even more.