From The Windsor Star:

The local chamber of commerce is urging the federal government to reconsider  its decision to refuse funding for a high-speed rail link between Windsor and  Quebec City.

Transport Minister Denis Lebel told The Star Tuesday that with a price tag of  between $18.9 billion and $21.3 billion, the proposal is “not a priority for our  government.” Lebel’s comments came on the heels of a report released Tuesday  that suggested a highspeed link between Windsor and Toronto would not be  financially viable.

Bill Anderson, chairman of the chamber’s transportation committee, said  Wednesday that dismissing high-speed rail for the Windsor-Quebec corridor is  “short-sighted.”

He said the report does not take into account the benefits of connecting Via  Rail with Amtrak passenger service in the U.S., providing a highspeed rail link  “all the way to Chicago.

“The U.S. government has already committed significant dollars to track  improvements from Detroit to Chicago and it would seem short-sighted not to take  advantage of that since it would change the entire picture.”

Anderson, director of the Cross Border Transportation Centre at the  University of Windsor, also said the study does not take into account the entire  range of options, which could include higher-speed rail rather than a much more  expensive high-speed version.

“There could still be significant improvements to the rail options even  without the high-speed version,” said Anderson. “It would seem to be a shame to  say we’re not going to do anything at all rather than look at the broad range of  options.”

While the study acknowledges that a MontrealOttawaToronto link has the  potential to be lucrative, it concluded that adding the eastern and western  portions would be too expensive.

“We hope the book isn’t closed on this issue because there do seem to be some  other options,” said Don Marsh, interim president of the chamber.

“Higher speed is doable at a less expensive cost and from our perspective, it  deserves to be debated fully,” said Marsh. “We’re planning to open up some  dialogue between chambers along the route to see what other options exist.

“In our view, the report does not look at the entire picture.”

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/Chamber+urges+rail+rethink/5723507/story.html#ixzz1eKTAH3nd

From Nortwest Indiana Times:

A Republican effort to kill funding for President Barack Obama’s signature  high-speed rail program will not affect the $71.4 Indiana Gateway project  centered on improvements at Porter Junction.

Money for the Indiana Gateway project, which will create 700 jobs, already  has been appropriated and awarded, according to officials at the Indiana  Department of Transportation and Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning  Commission.

“Our understanding is the Congressional action will not put those funds in  jeopardy,” John Swanson, NIRPC executive director, said Thursday.

House and Senate negotiators agreed to a measure this week that eliminates  any new funding specifically for high-speed trains in fiscal year 2012. Final  passage of the bill, which funds day-to-day operations at the Transportation  Department and several other agencies in fiscal 2012, was expected Thursday in  the House and Friday in the Senate.

Republican lawmakers are now claiming credit for killing the president’s  high-speed rail program, but billions of dollars already in the pipeline from  the Obama stimulus package will ensure work will continue on many projects.

Those include $196.5 million awarded for improvements to the Michigan portion  of the Chicago-to-Detroit high-speed rail route in October. The Porter Junction  is a key link on that route, with the Indiana Gateway project meant to alleviate  the frequent delays of Amtrak trains that now take place there.

As many as 90 freight and 14 Amtrak trains per day make their way through  Porter Junction, a web of tracks on the town line between Porter and  Chesterton.

Money for the Indiana Gateway project was Indiana’s sole win in the  competition for high-speed rail funds two years ago.

Negotiations between the Federal Railroad Administration, INDOT, Amtrak and  Norfolk Southern Corp. on reconfiguring tracks at Porter Junction are  continuing, according to INDOT spokesman Jim Pinkerton. Once an agreement  between them is final, the construction work can proceed.

Since Obama took office in 2009, his administration has steered $10.1 billion  to high-speed rail projects around the country. Transportation Secretary Ray  LaHood said Wednesday the money already dished out will result in more than $1  billion in high-speed rail projects across the country next year.

The transportation bill Congress is set to pass this week marks “an end to  the president’s misguided high-speed rail program, but it is not the end of  American high-speed rail,” said Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House  Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s railroad subcommittee.

Shuster and the Transportation Committee’s chairman, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.,  say the future of high-speed rail in the U.S. is in the Northeast rail corridor  that connects Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, rather than the  national network of trains envisioned by Obama.

Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/porter-junction-rail-project-looks-safe/article_a147fbfb-b7fc-5843-8f03-c189e9ebb4f3.html#ixzz1eKPwWrok

From the Detroit Free Press:

Some lucky Amtrak passengers taking the Wolverine train between Detroit and Chicago Thanksgiving week will get to ride in the railroad’s Great Dome railcar.

Riders on trains 352 on Nov. 23 and 351 on Nov. 24 will be able to sit in the double-decker car, which has been added to increase space on the busy Wolverine route for the holidays.

It features an upper level with panoramic glass on all sides, providing vistas of passing scenery. Seats cannot be reserved, so whichever coach passengers get up there first can sit there.

The Great Dome was once used on the Empire Builder between Chicago and Seattle and most recently was used on a route between Orlando and Washington, D.C. It was built in 1955 and is painted red, white and blue. It’s the only remaining Great Dome car in Amtrak’s fleet.

Source: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201111181056/FEATURES07/111118024

From The Grand Rapids Press:

Vern Ehlers says he wishes energy was purple.

Not in the sense of energy conservation being a red-blue (as in bipartisan) issue, though that is a nice thought.

As the former West Michigan congressman explained to a group gathered to break ground on the new Amtrak station that eventually will bear his name, he wishes energy had a visible color attached to it, so motorists would know how much of it they’re eating up.

“They would realize how much energy they’re wasting driving a car,” Ehlers said Friday in a lot near the Rapid Central Station Platform where the new station is scheduled to open in 2013. “Although the automobile is a wonderful invention, it got too good, so people drive them too much.”

Ehlers was the ceremony’s guest of honor, and he explained his interest in mass transit to a gathering that included local politicians and representatives from the Interurban Transit Partnership (the Rapid), the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority, Amtrak and the Michigan Department of Transportation.

The project is funded through a $3.8 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration. Last year, the DDA approved an $850,000 request to help the Rapid and M-DOT buy the land and leverage the federal earmark.

The new station and platform will be adjacent to the existing Rapid station and is intended to cut commute times on Amtrak’s Pere Marquette line between Grand Rapids and Chicago.

Ehlers, who represented Michigan’s 3rd District until early this year, said it was “a great honor” to have the station bear his name.

Others who spoke at the ceremony praised Ehlers’ efforts to secure funding for the project. (He would later vote against the 2009 spending bill that contained it.)

“All along, we’ve had a vision for a multi-modal transit system in Grand Rapids,” Mayor George Heartwell said. “This wouldn’t have happened without our champion in Washington.”

Amtrak this week reported ridership gains for its Michigan routes in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/10/officials_break_ground_on_amtr.html