President Barack Obama shakes hands with a worker as he and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx tour the Metro Transit Light Rail Operations and Maintenance Facility in St. Paul, Minn., Feb. 26, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
February 26th saw US President Barack Obama speak at the historic Union Depot train station in Saint Paul, Minnesota and launch a competition for $600 million in competitive transportation funding and outline his vision for investing in America’s infrastructure with a $302 billion, four year surface transportation re-authorization proposal. Railways are a major part of the the programme along with other aspects of public transport and will also work with Congress to act to ensure critical transportation programs continue to be funded and do not expire later this year.
The proposal increases average transit spending by nearly 70 percent annually, for a total program of $72 billion over four years, which will enable the expansion of new projects (e.g., light rail, street cars, bus rapid transit, etc.) in suburbs, fast-growing cities, small towns, and aging rural communities, while still maintaining existing transit systems.Whilst $19 billion in dedicated funding for rail programs including nearly $5 of billion annually for high performance and passenger rail programs with a focus on improving the connections between key regional city pairs and high traffic corridors throughout the country.
Fact Sheet from The White House:
- Launching competition for $600 million in TIGER competitive grants to fund transformative transportation infrastructure projects. Since the President took office, America has made historic investments to improve our nation’s infrastructure –including the highly successful Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) competitive grant program that has invested $3.5 billion in 270 projects across the country. Today the President is announcing that the U.S. Department of Transportation is making available $600 million in TIGER competitive grants to fund transportation projects. The TIGER grant program, which was initially funded as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was recently funded in the bipartisan Consolidated Appropriations Act, signed by the President on January 17th, 2014.
- Proposing an aggressive four-year plan to modernize our nation’s surface transportation infrastructure. Despite progress over the last five years, there’s more work to do. Later this summer, the nation’s transportation system will be facing a funding crisis, which is why the President is committed to working with Congress, including Senators Boxer and Vitter and Representatives Shuster and Rahall, on a bipartisan solution. Today the President is outlining his vision for a comprehensive, long term plan that puts people back to work repairing our nation’s transportation infrastructure. The President will propose a four-year reauthorization of our surface transportation programs that will modernize our nation’s infrastructure and ensure the health and growth of these critical programs for the future while supporting millions of jobs.
- Proposing a pro-growth, bipartisan approach to financing the President’s surface transportation plan. The President’s Budget will outline his proposal to dedicate $150 billion in one-time transition revenue from pro-growth business tax reform to address the funding crisis facing our surface transportation programs and increase infrastructure investment. This amount is sufficient to not only fill the current funding gap in the Highway Trust Fund, but increase surface transportation investment over current projected levels by nearly $90 billion over the next four years. When taking into account existing funding for surface transportation, this plan will result in a total of $302 billion being invested over four years putting people back to work modernizing our transportation infrastructure. The President is putting forward this pro-growth financing plan to encourage bipartisan efforts to support a visionary infrastructure plan, but is open to all ideas for how to achieve this important objective, and will work closely with Members of Congress of both parties on a solution that will invest in more job creating transportation projects. The President is also looking forward to working with Congress on bipartisan ideas to attract more private investment, such as a national infrastructure bank or the recent infrastructure financing authority proposal from Senators Warner and Blunt.
Read the full publication from the White House here.
Former US Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood will be a speaker at the PTC World Congress in Orlando Florida on April 15-17th 2014. Other industry expert speakers include Deborah Hersman, Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board, Henry McCreary, Director PTC Communications, CSX Transportation and many more at the the only dedicated Positive Train Control event for the whole value chain taking place. Click here for more information and for how you can become a part of this must attend event.
SmartRail World 