U.S.: President Obamas plans of high-speed trains in the U.S. have largely been derailed by the opposition of several Republican ideologues on the state level. This leaves the U.S. passenger train infrastructure on the level of a developing country in many regions and stifles recovery in areas, where the automobile industry is gone and would have been replaced by train manufacturers: Wisconsin’s Republican governor, Scott Walker, rejected $823 million in funding that the federal government was offering (...) High-speed rail was once a central part of Obamas vision for government — one in which the nation’s infrastructure, schools and health-care systems would be modernized to meet the challenges of globalization and expand the middle class. But the abandoned Wisconsin rail project, and several others around the country, illustrate just how difficult — and incomplete — the effort has been. Even as he managed to get the federal government up and running again this past month, Obama’s larger project of redefining what government should do has been stymied by steady Republican opposition (...) In terms of urban revitalization, this is the type of activity that would have generated good American jobs, and that would have provided work for people who needed work to support their families, said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat and Obama ally who ran unsuccessfully against Walker in 2010 and 2012. (...) I mean, it’s important to repave our roads; it’s important to repair our bridges so that they’re safe, Obama said that year [2010] in Tampa. But we want to start looking deep into the 21st century, and we want to say to ourselves, ‘There is no reason why other countries can build high-speed rail lines and we can’t.’ But three key states rejected the funding altogether. Florida, for example, was in line to receive $2.4 billion for a rail project. But Republican Gov. Rick Scott turned down the offer, as did Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and Walker, dooming the initiative in those three states. Barrett — who has made reviving Century City one of his central missions — and many other Wisconsin Democrats feel differently. The city bought 84 acres of land in the industrial area in 2009 and razed 1.5 million square feet of buildings to make way for new development. A.O. Smith built car frames there from 1910 to 1996; Tower Automotive took over the plant in 1996 and built Dodge Ram trucks there for a decade before moving its operations to Mexico. (...) Talgo USA, the American subsidiary of a Spanish train manufacturer, agreed to pay $29,000 a month to occupy half of the 300,000-square-foot Building 36, which the city refurbished with two rail spurs and maintenance pits. The firm sourced many of the train’s components from local manufacturers — both the fiberglass panels in the passenger cars and ceiling panels designed for sound absorption came from Wisconsin firms — and it hired 80 workers to assemble and test the trains. The company produced two trains that went to Oregon for service in the Pacific Northwest Cascades Corridor passenger rail line; the other two sit amid boxes of spare partshere in Milwaukee. Talgo filed a lawsuit against the state of Wisconsin this week seeking $66 million for unpaid bills, lost business and other damages. Talgo spokeswoman Nora Friend said the firm had envisioned the facility as a launching pad to supply high-speed projects across the United States. But a boom never materialized, as Obama’s stimulus rail initiative fell victim to political pushback. washingtonpost/politics/as-high-speed-rail-project-falters-obamas-vision-of-government-remains-unfulfilled/2013/11/08/669f2dda-1a61-11e3-8685-5021e0c41964_story.html
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 13:46:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015