Amtrak: New Framework Needed for Surface Transportation Investment Program

Published on : Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Amtrak-logo-300x124Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman made the following statement following a Congressional hearing today which focused on the effectiveness of the surface transportation safety grant program to improve the safety of the travelling public:

“Today’s Congressional hearing is part of the larger discussion on the need for a new surface transportation bill and is focused on identifying effective and innovative projects and activities that improve the safety of the travelling public. However, rail safety is really only part of today’s discussion where highways cross railroad tracks.

“That’s unfortunate. The fact that highway-rail grade crossing safety has long been included in the Highway Trust Fund is a strong argument for a new framework of a balanced surface transportation investment program that can invest in any surface mode—including Highway, Transit and Rail (both freight and passenger). The guiding principle of such a
program must focus on national priorities, connectivity and economic growth.

“We all need to recognize the Highway Trust Fund is based on an outmoded vision for mobility in the United States and is financially unviable. If Congress simply structures a new surface transportation bill around the existing framework of the Highway Trust Fund, we will all lose because nothing worthwhile will change in our national transportation policy.”

Click here for a copy of a recent speech delivered by Boardman on the topic of Bringing
Transportation Funding into the 21st Century.

Source:- Amtrak

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