From the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service:

Governor Rick Snyder’s special message last Wednesday for a new transportation strategy in Michigan is receiving positive reviews from those seeking reform in the state because he’s not just trying to fix roads and patch potholes, but is instead proposing a long-term solution for transportation funding and improving public transit.

“The challenge is simple. Michigan’s infrastructure is deteriorating from a lack of investment,” Governor Snyder said. “If we are going to reinvent Michigan’s economy, we have to reinvest in Michigan’s infrastructure.”

Snyder said the state needs to raise $1.4 billion to fund transportation projects, and raising the money, he said, will help fix the state’s crumbling roads, contribute to rebuilding the state’s economy, and attract young talent to Michigan.

“(Transportation) is a critical issue when you are talking about jobs,” the governor said. “We know that in the reinvention of Michigan, one of the fundamental issues is more and better jobs, and that’s why infrastructure is on the top of the list.”

The idea of investing in transportation to attract young people and to help revitalize Michigan’s urban centers is a message that aligns very well with a new diverse coalition of more than 15 groups called Transportation for Michigan (Trans4M) that seeks increased investments in public transit and non-motorized options.

Chris Kolb, president of the Michigan Environmental Council, said the coalition’s members are very upbeat about the governor’s message on transportation.

“It was a very positive message — one that recognizes that we need to make investments in not only improving the condition of roads and bridges, but also public transit including bus rapid transit for southeast Michigan and creating a Regional Transit Authority,” Mr. Kolb said.

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce is a member of the Trans4M Coalition. Chamber President Rich Studley tells the Michigan Land Use Institute he was encouraged by Snyder’s comprehensive approach to fixing the long-neglected transportation infrastructure in Michigan. He sees fixing the funding problem and diversifying transit options, including developing public transit, as necessary steps to strengthen the state economy.

“The focus was on our entire transportation system,” Mr. Studley said. “When he talks about good roads, he clearly wants to fix roads and bridges….but he also sees public transit as a priority.”

“We also like the idea of the local option (for increasing revenues via vehicle registrations,)” Mr. Studley said. “There are some parts of the state where there is a need for more and better public transit…while other parts of the state have critical roads and bridges in need of repair. I saw that as adding a meaningful option for funding with lots of flexibility.”

The Trans4M coalition’s guiding principles call for smart investments in transportation that can, like the governor said, help revive Michigan’s urban centers, reconnect people to opportunity, and reduce the state’s environmental footprint. Megan Owens, Executive Director for Transportation Riders United in Detroit, said the governor deserves credit for finally getting the state to pay attention to transportation.

“I’m very excited that the governor recognizes the importance of investing in transit,” said Ms. Owens. “As Trans4m has been calling for, he highlighted the need for a Regional Transit Authority and dedicated local funding options. I do think the governor was right in saying that most people shouldn’t have to think about transportation or infrastructure issues, but because Michigan has neglected transit for so long, people don’t have the options that they need to get around, and hearing what we heard from the governor is a critical step to providing Michigan more affordable and attractive transportation options.”

To pay to fix roads and to support both public transit and new rail, the governor floated several innovative ideas including: increasing vehicle registrations by $120 a year to raise $1 billion; allowing local governments and regions to increase vehicle registration fees by up to $40 per year to raise up to $300 million more; shifting the state’s gas tax from a retail-based tax to a wholesale tax; allowing counties to absorb local road commissions; establishing a Regional Transit Authority to develop new high-speed transit options in Southeast Michigan; and perhaps most importantly, increasing the state’s commitments to rail and public transit.

Rep. Wayne Schmidt (R-Traverse City) has been a vocal supporter of rail and transit, as well as road improvements.

“I was glad to hear him include support for public transit,” Rep. Schmidt said. “You’ve got to get people to work, and transit is a good way to revitalize the economy, especially in southeast Michigan.”

Regarding whether there could be support within the Republican legislature for increasing revenue through a registration fee hike, Rep. Schmidt said, “This has more possibilities and might be a better long range funding system than just raising the gas tax. A registration increase is less regressive than the gas tax. He got the conversation started and this (funding idea) is probably being talked about more than others. This truly has more merit than other proposals.”

Mr. Snyder clearly voiced support for improving public transit in southeast Michigan. He talked of shifting the debate from old, existing issues to “a fresh start” that includes a key transit corridor that could be served by a high tech rapid bus line that is convenient and reliable.

“A new transit system in southeast Michigan,” Governor Snyder said. “That’s a discussion that’s been going on for almost as long as I’ve been alive and it’s not been a positive or constructive dialogue. We’ve spent way too much time arguing about legacy systems. The starting point I believe is to start fresh…The fresh start I would propose is a key corridor system based on Southeastern Michigan within the city of Detroit, and the counties of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw and anyone else who wants to join. But (what we really need) to focus on is the key corridors to create a really good rapid transit bus system, or other transit system, connecting those communities that would be on the main corridor, on the corners of Woodward, Gratiot, Michigan Avenue and M-59 –  and promoting that. The good part is we’ve got positive encouragement from the federal government.”

The governor also offered strong support for rail, saying it could be used to better serve the agricultural economy and become another transit option for passengers.

“We also have the opportunity with passenger rail and commuter rail…and there is an opportunity to seek commuter rail potentially from Ann Arbor, all the way around Detroit, to Pontiac,” he said.

In 2009, a special Transportation Funding Task Force was assembled by former Gov. Jennifer Granholm. After months of study, the task force concluded in its final report that Michigan had a crisis on the horizon and that immediate action to double the state’s investment in transportation was necessary.

“What the Task Force ultimately determined, after months of hard work and much public input, is that if Michigan’s transportation system is to continue to serve the state adequately, our investment in transportation must increase significantly,” the task force said in it’s final report.

“The one choice we cannot afford is to do nothing,” the Task Force said.

MEC’s Kolb said the Trans4M coalition is committed to help the governor follow through on the proposals and for the state as a whole to have an informed public debate on the solutions proposed by the governor.

“One of the things we know is that we need to be providing our residents with transportation options because not everyone can or wants to get around using a personal vehicle,” Mr. Kolb said. “If you look around the country or world, a 21st century community has those type of options — bus, light rail, and young people like them. If we are going to retain and attract new and young talent, we need to provide those options.”

From Michigan Radio’s Enviornment Report:

Governor Rick Snyder met with lawmakers, federal officials and the railroad industry Oct. 31, 2011 to talk about the future of rail transportation in our state.

Rick Pluta is the State Capitol Bureau Chief for the Michigan Public Radio Network.  He was at the Michigan Rail Summit and he joins me to talk more about this. So Rick, what did the Governor say?

Listen to more: http://environmentreport.org/show.php?showID=583

From The Toronto Star:

Of all the issues endlessly studied without resolution in Canada, high-speed rail (HSR) tops the list.

The latest unreleased HSR study, which was revealed by the Star last week, only confirms that more than 30 years of rosy political promises and large consulting fees have accomplished nothing.

Canada remains the only G8 nation that hasn’t taken the first step on the high-speed trail, while even China, Russia, Turkey, Morocco and Uzbekistan have launched HSR projects. By 2025, there will be 43,000 kilometres of high-speed lines worldwide, but none in Canada if we don’t change our ways.

No one should expect that change to come from this $3.4 million study commissioned by the federal, Ontario and Quebec governments. It merely replows ground covered by a joint $6 million Ontario-Quebec government study in 1995, which flowed from a 1991 interprovincial study that consumed another $6 million.

This time around, the recommendation is 200 or 300 km/hour service from Toronto to Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal, Trois-Rivieres and Quebec, with nothing for southwestern Ontario or across the border to connect with the expanding U.S. rail passenger network. Other cities along the truncated corridor would have their VIA service replaced by buses. Much of the existing passenger infrastructure would be dumped in favour of an all-new Quebec-Toronto “greenfield” system costing $14 billion to $16 billion that wouldn’t carry its first passenger for 15 years.

The height of ridiculousness is a disclaimer in the report stating there was an error in the comparative air fares used for the ridership and revenue projections, so the authors “cannot be held responsible for decisions made based on these uncorrected forecasts and analyses.”

In short, this report is just another expensive trainload of frustration for those who want the multiple, sustainable benefits of HSR unleashed in Canada. But it does unintentionally highlight the reasons it remains a Canadian dream when it is or soon will be a reality in 26 other countries.

HSR emerged overseas in the 1960s when existing passenger routes reached their speed and capacity limits. New high-speed lines corrected the limitations of the old ones, which remained in service for fast regional trains connecting with the new express services.

Furthermore, investment has usually been incremental and continuous, not typically loaded into “big bang” projects that take years to deliver. Public money first improved the existing lines and then built the new segments to progressively throttle up speed, ridership and revenue, which was poured back into the entire rail passenger system.

Underlying this investment overseas are government policies aimed at establishing rail as the backbone of their entire transportation systems.

Such practical vision and political will have long been lacking in Canada, although there has been a marginal improvement of late thanks to the Harper government’s investment of more than $300 million in the infrastructure used by VIA between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the federal and provincial money that continues to flow into the competing highways and air facilities, but it’s a start. While this investment won’t increase the current maximum speed of 160 km/hour, it will eliminate chokepoints to decrease the end-to-end travel times slightly and allow for more trains.

In fact, VIA is the only agency with any idea of how we can financially, operationally and politically build HSR. The Crown corporation even produced a blueprint to do it back in 2002, although it was sidetracked through no fault of its own. Phased in over five years, the VIAFast plan would maximize the existing infrastructure and require only 100 kilomtres of new line for the 240 km/hour express trains that would link the major centres along the entire 1,200-kilometre Quebec-Windsor corridor. Regional 160 km/hour trains would continue to serve all the intermediate points. There would be collateral benefits for rail freight service throughout the corridor, helping to shift truck traffic off the highways.

In 2002, VIAFast was estimated at $2.6 billion. That’s less than a fifth of the cost of the dream scheme in the current HSR study and about two-thirds of the cost of the publicly funded bridge and highway proposed for the Windsor-Detroit border crossing.

VIAFast is a logical, fair and affordable way to quickly implement HSR service in the most densely populated and heavily travelled corridor in Canada. This is the plan we need.
What we don’t need are more studies. The benefits of HSR and the methods for delivering it were proved long ago in numerous other countries. The time has come for our governments to either get aboard or stop this wasteful cycle of studies, which only frustrates the public and fails to resolve central Canada’s growing mobility problem.
Greg Gormick is a Toronto transportation writer and consultant.

From Progessive Railroading:

Amtrak expanded its AmtrakConnect Wi-Fi service to 12 East Coast routes, including the Northeast Regional, Keystone and Empire services.

Other routes now featuring Wi-Fi include the Carolinian, Downeaster, Ethan Allen Express, New Haven-to-Springfield Shuttle and Vermonter, Amtrak officials said in a prepared statement.

Wi-Fi service also was installed in select cars marked as “hot spots” on the following routes: Adirondack, Maple Leaf, Palmetto and Pennsylvanian.

The additional service means nearly 60 percent of all Amtrak riders now have Wi-Fi connections, Amtrak officials said.

“The expansion of Wi-Fi further enhances the travel experience for passengers, giving them more options for entertainment or to do work while en route,” said Emmett Fremaux, Amtrak’s vice president for marketing and product development. “We are committed to continuing to improve and expand this service as resources and technology allow.”

While Wi-Fi service has been a priority, the primary obstacle to providing Internet connectivity on trains is the limited bandwidth on many routes, currently provided through third-party cellular data networks located along tracks, Amtrak officials said. They are exploring ways to expand that coverage through talks with cellular companies.