HIGH SPEED
At a press conference on
As required by the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the FRA released its strategic plan in
April 2009, describing the agency's vision for developing high-speed rail in
the
The BLET Legislative Department released its “High Speed Rail Position Paper” in the summer of 2009, which states that the BLET believes that the implementation of high speed rail could greatly benefit the membership and the country as a whole, with a few adjustments to the current strategy. The BLET wants to redefine the definition of high speed rail, which was established approximately 40 years ago. The current definition relates to passenger trains traveling 110 mph or faster. The BLET would like high speed rail to include intermodal freight operations at between 70 and 125 mph, which would greatly increase volume and revenue for the railroads. The BLET does not feel that passenger trains traveling in excess of 150 miles per hour should be allowed to commingle with freight operations and may not be supported by the freight railroads. The BLET believes that the use of temporal separation would allow freight and passenger trains to operate on the same track as an intermodal system and it would remove the question about which takes precedence on a particular line. The report states that “Temporal separation would provide a buffer so that freight cannot operate on the line at the same time as passenger rail, without decreasing the safety of either or the ability to thrive in a competitive market.”
The report goes on to state that the BLET believes there is a need to standardize any new system to create a seamless coast-to-coast network that can be integrated with the current freight and passenger rail service infrastructure. In addition, the BLET believes that, in order to ensure the safety of our nation’s citizens, there must remain a federally certified locomotive engineer in the cab of any high speed locomotive. The BLET also wants to ensure that all jobs created by the implementation of a high speed rail system are safeguarded and that all workers in the project are covered by federal laws relating to railroad workers. The BLET report closes with the following statement: “The bottom line is that high speed rail is the solution to resolving most of our passenger/freight railroad challenges in this nation.” (To read the entire report, go to RAIL_BLETProposal825.pdf).
After attending the June 2, 2009, Passenger Rail Forum
sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration in Philadelphia, passenger
rail leaders from the BLET and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees
(BMWED) were highly encouraged about the Obama Administration’s plan for high
speed rail. At that forum, representatives from the federal government outlined
the Administration’s national vision for passenger rail in the
In July 2010, BLET Vice President
& National Legislative Representative John Tolman was appointed as a member
of the Advisory Board of the American High Speed Rail Alliance (AHSRA), an
organization that advocates for the development and implementation of a high
speed passenger rail network in the
In his speech
delivered to delegates and attendees at the BLET’s
National Convention in October 2010, in
There are those
who favor privatization of high-speed rail. In January 2011, the new House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, who has been a critic of the high speed rail grants,
stated that he wants to refocus the government’s efforts on projects that will
get “more bang for the buck.” Although he states that he wants to shift more
freight, as well as passengers, onto rail service to ease burdens on the
nation’s highways, he believes that Amtrak’s plans for high-speed rail in the
Northeast Corridor will not get the job done as fast or as well as bringing in
private investors. Representative Bill Shuster (R-PA) agrees with Mica on
privatization. He feels that Obama’s grant program largely left out the
Northeast Corridor, which he said was “perhaps the biggest missed opportunity”
of the plan.
Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman disagrees
with Mica, stating: “It is critical for the Northeast Corridor to remain a
public asset. Amtrak was created by Congress precisely because the privately
owned railroads could no longer sustain the vital public service of intercity
passenger rail, and no other operator or company is prepared to mobilize to
take over the operation of the Northeast Corridor. Nor are they funded to cover
the long-term capital and operating costs.”
Unfortunately, the high speed rail initiative suffered a
serious setback as a result of the fight over federal budget cuts. On
So for now,
President Obama’s dream of spending at least $500 billion building a high-speed
rail network connecting most major American cities in the next 25 years is
dead. The Congressional leaders who took high-speed rail out of the 2011
spending bill are not likely to put it back in to the six-year transportation
reauthorization bill. Proponents of high speed rail feel that the elimination
of the high speed rail initiative in this country puts us at a very real risk of falling behind other developed countries
in economic output, mobility, and quality of life, including reduction
of greenhouse gases through a realistic alternative means of travel.