Posted on 02/11/2011 3:08:04 PM PST by Pontiac
Ohio may yet get on track with President Obama's newly announced $53 billion initiative to build a nationwide high speed rail network.
A bipartisan group of northern Ohio Congress members met Thursday with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to discuss building a high speed rail line along Lake Erie that would link Cleveland with Chicago, Detroit, Toledo and Buffalo, and also include routes to Youngstown and Pittsburgh. Building a line along the lake is a top tier part of Obama's rail program.
Bainbridge Township GOP Rep. Steve LaTourette said he plans to work with Republicans and Democrats from Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan "to see if there's a way we can help restore some of what the President's vision is on high speed rail in our part of the world."
"If we can go to him with a proposal that doesn't cripple Ohio's general fund and puts people to work and moves us into the 21st century when it comes to passenger rail, I'm sure he'll listen to us," LaTourette said of Kasich.
(Excerpt) Read more at cleveland.com ...
Meaning they’d have to be profitable.
Kasich is looking all over for cuts. The only way to cut business taxes is to cut the budget, not to increase it.
Normal passenger trains are far more efficient than high-speed rail if you factor in maintenance and safety. Normal trains are very fuel-efficient transportation where you have a network of towns within about an hour of each other. Take a ride on the Bergen line in NJ. Normal trains, decently clean, nice ride, very popular, go from town to town or all the way to nyc.
If only the gov’t would get out of all mass transit and let private companies (U.S. only) own the infrastructure and other private companies operate.
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