T4America Blog

More on today’s high speed rail announcement

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 this. This is America. There’s no reason why the future of travel should lie somewhere else beyond our borders. Building a new system of high-speed rail in America will be faster, cheaper and easier than building more freeways or adding to an already overburdened aviation system — and everybody stands to benefit.

They also posted some details about the corridors eligible for funding, including this map below, which is very similar to an older Department of Transportation map from several years ago.

According to the information from the White House site, the potential corridors eligible for funding are:

1. California: San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego
2. Pacific Northwest: Eugene, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver, B.C.
3. South Central: Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Little Rock
4. Gulf Coast Corridor: Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Birmingham, Atlanta
5. Chicago Hub Network: Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville
6. Florida: Orlando, Tampa, Miami
7. Southeast: Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Macon, Columbia, Savannah, Jacksonville
8. Keystone: Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh
9. Empire: New York, Albany, Buffalo
10. Northern New England: Boston, Montreal, Portland, Springfield, New Haven, Albany

Transportation for America released a statement this morning from Campaign Director James Corless in support of the President’s initiative:

We applaud President Obama’s leadership, and look forward to working with him to help shape the sustainable transportation solutions that will bring our system into the 21st Century. It is clear that President Obama and his administration are ready to move America in a new direction. Transportation systems have enormous impacts on the lives of the American people – from our pocket books to climate change, from our household expenses to the global economy.

Americans are increasingly rejecting the status quo in favor of more transportation options that will make our communities more walkable, more energy efficient, more equitable and healthier. The President’s commitment to high speed rail is an important piece of what must be a bold new vision for our national transportation program.

You can watch video of the press conference here, via Politico.com