Rare are the days when I, as a blogger, venture into the world of partisan politics. Those grounds are covered by people with more time for blogger than I have, and I like to keep my focus on news and views from the subway. Sure, most regular readers have probably picked up my liberal leanings, but in New York, we operate in our own political world.
So pardon my intrusion while I look across the country to Denver where, in a few days, a train man will accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for vice president. On Wednesday night, Sen. Joe Biden from the great state of Delaware will issue that evening’s speech, and while his love of and reliance on commuter trains may not make it into his introductory remarks this week, it’s sure to come up between now and Election Day.
Biden, you see, is a bona fide commuter like the rest of us — or almost like the rest of us. The Senator travels back and forth from Washington, DC to Wilmington, Delaware, every day during the Senate sessions. While some people may opt to make that round trip via a chauffeured car, Senator Biden relies on Amtrak for his round trips. His monthly ticket costs over $1000, quite a bit more than our Unlimited Ride Metrocards with or without another fare hike, but it’s still rail travel.
So then as rail fans and transportation-minded writers everywhere are excited about Biden’s potential rail advocacy, we can play the “What If?” game for New York. What if Biden, via the Obama ticket, earns his spot in the next presidential administration? What sort of transportation gains can we expect?
Well, on the surface, the gains will be tough to achieve. As with any politically-oriented goal, Congress will have to approve an effort by Vice President Biden to increase funding for, say, Amtrak or Amtrak-oriented development. But perhaps Biden would begin to push for more money for the beleaguered national rail company. Perhaps, we’ll see funds heading our way for the ever-planned Moynihan Station. Perhaps other rail-oriented efforts will earn more respect — and funds — from the federal government.
In the end, it is of course far too early to speculate on the transit advances that should come out of Washington, DC, when the next administration takes over. But any rail fan should think long and hard about supporting the Obama-Biden ticket. It is, after all, the one with the rail-friendly fellow running for Vice President.
5 comments
Transportation and infrastructure-minded advocates – especially Mass Transportation infrastructure advocates – certainly look forward to a highly-placed government official going to bat for increased emphasis on transportation diversity and efficiency. Sen. Biden has great experience and depth of knowledge, and will not simply be jumping on the bandwagon now that gas is expensive and passenger rail advocacy is fashionable.
But the Moynihan Station project will provide little if any real benefit to local, regional or national transportation. It is merely a shopping mall being built around a railroad station. It will replace some portions of the existing ghastly NYP, but will provide no additional trackage, platforms or connections.
It is, or will be, one more example of public assets – Amtrak’s station, the USPS’s facilities, and a huge volume of light, air and space presently reserved as a public asset via existing zoning regulations – to be transferred to private speculators, who continue to wax lyrical about the Late Great Pennsylvania Station and the Late Great Senator Moynihan, all the while cynically salivating over the assets they can acquire by manipulating the political system instead of having to buy such space on the free market.
New tunnels? New connections to areas underserved by transit? New signal system to speed existing service? New passenger rail equipment & facilities? No, no, no and no.
More gigantic buildings and more people using existing overcrowded transit lines? More chain stores & shopping mall culture? Higher commercial and residential rents? You Betcha!! And all of it clothed in that wonderfully warm, fuzzy, efficient-sounding phrase “Transit Oriented Development” – As if developers were ever interested in constructing their shopping malls and high-rise buildings far away from transportation facilities.
Public assets, particularly Public Transportation assets, and the efficiency they engender, should be conveyed carefully with an eye toward the synergy that development and transportation can engender when the two priorities are equally balanced.
We can expect more empty promises.
I agree, Peter. A better role for the federal government in our region lies in improving interstate connections:
Get the new cross-Hudson “THE” tunnel done faster
Build the Cross-Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel
Re-establish passenger train service to Scranton and Binghamton via the Lackawanna Cut-Off
Rebuild the parallel routes that can take some pressure off the Northeast Corridor.
Fix the Haverstraw Tunnel and rebuild the West Shore Line for passenger service.
This railfan didn’t need to think too hard before deciding that Obama-Biden is better for passsenger rail than, say, McCain-Young, McCain-Jeb Bush, or McCain-DeLay.
With respect, I think Lackawanna Cut-Off service is a waste of money. Mass transit should make people need cars less, not more; however, this project, enabling development far out of city centers, will require people to use a car for any kind of trip except to Manhattan.
The New York metro area has one of the lowest densities in the world, and the largest land area. It should promote higher density on existing urban land, not further sprawl.
The Lackawanna Cut-Off is a crucial project. But it’s not really a commuter rail project. It’s *intercity rail*. Currently people who live in Scranton and Binghamton — which are, in actual fact, “city centers” — pretty much are forced to drive *everywhere*. Including driving to New York City on trips.
Those stations in the Poconos require much more careful work — it would be important to locate them at existing areas of high development (there are a frightening number of commuters already driving from the Poconos to NYC, apparently), and not so as to encourage more development.
But it’s really very important to restore intercity rail from the Twin Tiers to NYC — this will take cars off the highways. And the Lackawanna Cutoff route is the only way to make that rail a remotely reasonable speed.