Transportation & Infrastructure (June 2010)

Politicians have been deploring our dependence on foreign oil for decades. Every one of us can probably recite the key statistic: Every single day we send $1 billion out of our economy to import oil from overseas.

As the Obama administration prepares to solicit applications for the next round of $2.5 billion in high-speed rail grants, serious questions regarding the success of high-speed rail in the United States continue to surface. Last year, the administration spent most of the taxpayer’s $8 billion in stimulus funds on expanding Amtrak services that will require ongoing government subsidies to operate and maintain. In fact, last year every ticket on Amtrak was subsidized $54.78 on average. The administration has failed to release the scoring on which the stimulus awards were made, or justify why true high-speed rail was left at the station. Most importantly, the administration ignored the private sector and failed to keep the awards focused on dense corridors that could actually support true high-speed rail.

Kelly Phillips was a 17-year-old honors student at a suburban Minneapolis high school in September 2007 when she died in a car crash.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” 

History will probably regard the disappointing record of the 111th Congress on issues of transportation and infrastructure as a litany of missed opportunities.