Lahood has not been in favor of high speed rail

"Some troubling news out of Chicago where a relatively unknown Republican Congressman from Illinois, Ray LaHood, is slated to become Barack Obama's Secretary of Transportation.

LaHood doesn't appear to have much of a record as a transportation expert - at least when Bush crossed the aisle for Norman Y. Mineta he got someone who knew the issues well. But the troubling thing is that what LaHood has said about HSR isn't encouraging.

<snip>
(speaking in 2004) Lahood said,
"While funding is his main concern, he said, "People in rural Illinois are not for high-speed rail... They do not want a train traveling 120, 125, 150 miles per hour through the rural areas, and I support them on that."
<snip>
"We need the DOT's help big time to get HSR off the ground - from FRA exemptions to disbursements of money; the Kerry HSR bill sets up an Office of High Speed Rail within the DOT. We need someone heading that department who knows what they're doing and who fully supports high speed rail. I am concerned Ray LaHood is not that person."


http://cahsr.blogspot.com/2008/12/ray-lahood-hsr-denier.html

The link is to one of the rail blogs which have been a source of incredible insight on the potential of high speed rail projects.

This is likely the best time in our lifetime to get a real major infrastructure program passed - and he really doesn't seem the man to head Transportation. This is rumoured to be an Emmanuel political pick.

We really need someone who will push high speed rail. Sen. Kerry has a bill in the Senate with a lot of support, and it would be good to have some serious backing from Obama's team.
Hopefully the guy's changed his mind since '04. I do believe Obama strongly backs high speed rail.

On the first page of the actual brochure, they have a prominent information box, that says:

"If the UK internal flights were to be made by train instead, by 2015 between 118,000 and 362,000 tonnes of carbon and 19,000 to 58,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxides emissions could be avoided."

If Obama is serious about dealing with global warming he needs to be serious about rail - and have a Transportation Secretary who will help, not hinder.

When Kerry introduced his high speed rail bill in the Senate, he compared the spending in other countries:

" While the U.S. is investing heavily in other forms of transportation, our investment in world class rail is dwarfed by other countries. For example, Germany's federal government gives its states $8.9 billion a year for rail projects, France spends twenty times more per capita on rail than the U.S., and the Ministry of Railways in China invested $19.6 billion in rail in the first half of 2008 alone. That is why we need to provide a constant source of funding for investment in high-speed rail. The High-Speed Rail for America Act of 2008 will take our outdated and underfunded passenger rail system and transform it into a world class system."

BritRail/Eurail is the best way to get around Europe. I'm taking the train from Pittsburgh to DC in a couple weeks and its going to take 7 1/2 hours. I could drive it in 4 1/2. What little we have in the US is just too slow for most travelers.

It was actually fun. All three girls found friends among the people near us - trading places to sit with their "new friends".

IIRC, it took over 24 hours to get from PA to Florida on the train, and nearly two days from Denver to PA. I usually don't have that kind of time for travel. It is fun, but way too slow.

That is way too slow. Ours was essentially from I think from early afternoon until the next morning - the kids liked that there was a dining car and a movie in the evening.