Hearing President Obama call high-speed rail “the infrastructure of tomorrow” gave me great hope. Very rarely has transportation investment made the final cut in a presidential State of the Union address. The fact that it did make the cut this time really speaks to the president’s commitment to making high-speed rail a reality.

As you may have heard by now, President Obama is following up his favorable mention of high speed rail in last night’s State of the Union Last with a Tampa event in Tampa to announce the winners of federal grants for high speed rail service. (In case you missed our official statement about the announcement, read that here.) The President is due to make his announcement this afternoon but the list of awardees has already been released. So who were the big winners? Certainly Florida and California, who got the biggest grants, netting $1.25 and $2.3 billion respectively.

Responding to his call for a jobs bill aimed at easing the unemployment crisis, the Transportation for America coalition today wrote to President Obama and cabinet members outlining the transportation investments can put the most Americans back to work, quickly. The coalition, now with more than 400 members, also applauded the President for moving ahead on his vision for a world-class network of intercity rail. “Our coalition members have worked hard to make the case for just such an investment,” said John Robert Smith, co-chair of T4 America, “so the President’s announcement today of progress on 13 corridors is welcome news, indeed.”

President Obama delivered a speech just a few minutes ago at the Brookings Institution here in Washington, D.C., on his plan for creating jobs and putting America back to work. We’ll add some details later and a link to the full speech, but here is the excerpt on infrastructure spending: Second, we’re proposing a boost [...]

President Barack Obama stressed changes in transportation emissions at the UN climate change summit today. “We’ve proposed the very first national policy aimed at both increasing fuel economy and reducing greenhouse gas pollution for all new cars and trucks — a standard that will also save consumers money and our nation oil,” Obama said. The [...]

When DOT Secretary LaHood was on Capitol Hill a few weeks ago discussing the Obama Administration’s plan for a transitional transportation bill, he mentioned that their plan for an 18-month extension would “enact critical reforms” while stopping short of a fundamental overhaul of the program — leaving that for the full six-year bill. A lot of transportation advocates were left wondering what sort of reforms the administration would propose. Today we got a first look at their general proposal.

President Obama’s remarks from the press conference this morning have been posted on the White House blog. In his remarks, joined by Vice President Biden and Transportation Secretary LaHood, Obama appealed to our national pride and pointed to the benefits that high-speed rail would bring to all Americans: There’s no reason why we can’t do [...]

President Obama made headlines this morning by presenting a blueprint for creating a high-speed rail network in the United States. By articulating this vision, the administration has put to rest any doubts that it is ready to line up with the American people in connecting our cities and regions with a 21st century network of passenger rail that will make us globally competitive and help us rebuild our economy for the long haul.

President Obama gave an interview to five columnists aboard Air Force One last week, talking at length about infrastructure, transportation, and the need to make serious reforms in transportation spending — hinting at how proper investments in transportation can help boost the economy while making the downpayment on a 21st Century transportation system we’re all hoping for.

President Obama was back on the road today to garner support for the economic stimulus package still currently in the Senate. He was speaking today at a town hall forum in Ft. Myers, Florida, and near the end of his hour-long session, a city councilwoman asked him about transportation and infrastructure in the stimulus. Here’s how he responded: