Review and Refunding of Rail Passenger Service Act


Book Description







High Speed Rail in the United States


Book Description

Contents: (1) Intro.; (2) What is High Speed Rail (HSR)?; (3) HSR Options; (4) Components of a HSR System: Conventional HSR; Track; Signal and Commun. Networks; Magnetic Levitation; (5) HSR In: Japan; France; Germany; Spain; China; (6) Background of Intercity Passenger Rail in the U.S.; (7) Previous Efforts in the U.S.; (8) Recent Congress. Initiatives to Promote HSR; (9) Potential Benefits: Alleviating Highway and Airport Congestion; Alleviating Pollution and Reducing Energy Consumption by the Transport. Sector; Promoting Econ. Develop.; Improving Transport. Safety; Providing a Choice of Modes; Making the Transport. System More Reliable; (10) Infrastructure and Operating Costs; (11) Ridership Potential; (12) Funding Consider.







Waiting on a Train


Book Description

During the tumultuous year of 2008--when gas prices reached $4 a gallon, Amtrak set ridership records, and a commuter train collided with a freight train in California--journalist James McCommons spent a year on America's trains, talking to the people who ride and work the rails throughout much of the Amtrak system. Organized around these rail journeys, Waiting on a Train is equal parts travel narrative, personal memoir, and investigative journalism. Readers meet the historians, railroad executives, transportation officials, politicians, government regulators, railroad lobbyists, and passenger-rail advocates who are rallying around a simple question: Why has the greatest railroad nation in the world turned its back on the very form of transportation that made modern life and mobility possible? Distrust of railroads in the nineteenth century, overregulation in the twentieth, and heavy government subsidies for airports and roads have left the country with a skeletal intercity passenger-rail system. Amtrak has endured for decades, and yet failed to prosper owing to a lack of political and financial support and an uneasy relationship with the big, remaining railroads. While riding the rails, McCommons explores how the country may move passenger rail forward in America--and what role government should play in creating and funding mass-transportation systems. Against the backdrop of the nation's stimulus program, he explores what it will take to build high-speed trains and transportation networks, and when the promise of rail will be realized in America.




A Statement of National Transportation Policy


Book Description

An attempt to set forth the broad policy considerations that should underlie the federal government's response to the nation's transportation needs.







High-speed Rail


Book Description

This Policy Focus Report was a product of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Regional Plan Association and their joint venture America 2050. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has been engaged in a series of projects with the Regional Plan Association for more than a decade. The partnership spawned the national initiative known as America 2050, which is aimed at meeting the infrastructure, economic development and environmental challenges of the nation, in preparation for a population increase of about 130 million by 2050. A major focus of America 2050 is the emergence of megaregions - large networks of metropolitan areas, where most of the population growth by mid-century will take place. Examples of megaregions are the Northeast Megaregion, from Boston to Washington, or Southern California, from Los Angeles to Tijuana, Mexico. High-speed rail is capable of linking employment centers and population hubs in corridors up to 600 miles in length in 11 U.S. megaregions.This Policy Focus Report was a product of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Regional Plan Association and their joint venture America 2050. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has been engaged in a series of projects with the Regional Plan Association for more than a decade. The partnership spawned the national initiative known as America 2050, which is aimed at meeting the infrastructure, economic development and environmental challenges of the nation, in preparation for a population increase of about 130 million by 2050. A major focus of America 2050 is the emergence of megaregions - large networks of metropolitan areas, where most of the population growth by mid-century will take place. Examples of megaregions are the Northeast Megaregion, from Boston to Washington, or Southern California, from Los Angeles to Tijuana, Mexico. High-speed rail is capable of linking employment centers and population hubs in corridors up to 600 miles in length in 11 U.S. megaregions.




National Transportation Strategic Planning Study


Book Description

Provided is an overview of the Nation's transportation system which identifies future investments required to maintain and develop its infrastructure. The contents of this study were used in support of the National Transportation Policy Statement, issued by the Department of Transportation during March 1990. It is organized around a framework in which transportation is viewed as an integral part of our socioeconomic system. The future development of transportation will be influenced by the same factors affecting the rest of the system, namely, demographic changes, the future course of the economy, the energy supply, and preservation of the environment.