DOT chief: ‘America needs passenger rail’

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Thursday that federal funding for long-distance railways and intracity public transit systems should be increased because “passenger rail is an important piece of our transportation puzzle.”

Foxx said in a blog post increased funding for railways is necessary to making sure that U.S. transportation can keep up with the nation’s expected population growth. 

“America is growing. But our roads, rails, and runways don’t automatically grow with our population,” he wrote after visiting the site of a proposed rail depot known as Gateway Station in his hometown of Charlotte, N.C.

{mosads}”We’re expecting 70 million more people over the next 30 years and a 45 percent spike in freight volume. The question is, ‘How are we going to move all of this freight, and all of these folks,'” Foxx continued. “Well, it turns out, the American people are voting on this question with their train tickets. Amtrak has broken ridership records in 10 out of the past 11 years. The train service that runs between Charlotte and Raleigh carries 100,000 more riders today than it did only five years ago.”

Foxx is in the middle of a weeklong tour of states from Florida to Virginia pushing for an Obama administration proposal for spending nearly $80 billion per year on road and transit projects over the next six years. The figure is a large increase over the approximately $50 billion per year that is currently being spent by the federal government on infrastructure. 

Lawmakers have begun considering a new transportation bill with the current measure set to expire in May. They have struggled to come up with a way to pay for the infrastructure spending beyond revenue that is collected from the federal gas tax, however, which is at 18.4 cents per gallon. 

The gas tax has been the traditional source of transportation funding for decades, but it has not been increased since 1993 and, in recent years, has struggled to keep pace with rising construction costs as cars have become more fuel efficient. 

The gas tax brings in approximately $34 billion at its current rate, resulting in a nearly $16-billion annual shortfall in transportation funding. 

Transportation advocates have pushed for an increase in the gas tax to boost infrastructure funding, but the Obama administration has said it would prefer to use revenue from taxing overseas corporate profits to pay for new construction projects.

Foxx said increased rail funding should be a part of the next transportation spending bill, no matter how it is ultimately funded.

“Sure, we can continue investing less in our passenger rail system than we should and watch our country’s competitiveness slip lower and lower,” he said. “Or, we can choose to build projects like the proposed Gateway Station that would bring our passenger train services into the 21st century. And create jobs. And grow our economy.”

“When push comes to shove — and that time is now — we must make the choice that positions us for a brighter future,” the DOT chief continued. “For us. For our children. And for generations of Americans to come.”

The current transportation funding measure, which includes about $11 billion in infrastructure funding, is scheduled to expire in May.