Ed Morrison · The Midwest High Speed Rail initiative

January 16th, 2010

Midwest Rail 550

Interested in high speed rail? Spend some timie learning about the initiative here: Midwest High Speed Rail Association

Federal funding may be around the corner.

Railroad czar praises high-speed rail plan for Midwest

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4 Responses to “The Midwest High Speed Rail initiative”

  1. Carla Says:
    January 16th, 2010 at 11:11 pm

    Seems to me if I take a train to Columbus, I have to rent a car to take me anywhere I want to go…or am I missing something? Do Columbus, Dayton & Cincinnati have extensive and reasonably priced public transit? If so, then we just have to work on the RTA in Cleveland. Help me out here: how can we consider a huge investment in high-speed rail to take us around the midwest, when people living in our cities can’t even get to work without a car?

  2. Ed Morrison Says:
    January 18th, 2010 at 10:23 am

    Well, Carla, it seems to me that it’s not an either/or issue. So, we probably need to redesign both intercity and intra-city transportation systems. As Rob has pointed out, the RTA is a bit of a basket case.

    A similar concern: Cleveland is a shrinking city. The schools are contracting, the churches are contracting, the RTA is contracting. But nobody is talking to anyone else about how Cleveland can contract strategically. Everyone is making decisions in their own silo.

    Meanwhile the Chamber is hooking its dreams on a new set of big boxes that have very little prospect of creating any sustainable economic development. Casinos and convention centers are thirty year old strategies that do not work.

    Not smart.

  3. Carla Says:
    January 18th, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    Ed, I agree with much of what you say. It’s just that regional high-speed rail will cost many millions if not billions of dollars. I’m wondering if we shouldn’t reform and refund local transport as the first step, the fastest step, and the step that will have the greatest social and economic impact. I suggest it’s really a question of priorities and timing, rather than either/or.

  4. Ed Morrison Says:
    January 19th, 2010 at 8:01 am

    Well, I think we should do both.

    You seem to suggest that we cannot make a commitment to high speed rail until we fix local transit. I do not agree. Local transit has a wide range of variations that are not easily fixed at the federal level.

    In RTA’s case, for example, there is good evidence to suggest that RTA’s problem is rooted in labor productivity. Further, as I suggested earlier, the problem in Cleveland is compounded by the failure of the city’s leadership to even discuss openly a shrinkage strategy for the city.

    More federal money will not solve either of these problems.

    We’ve all been to cities and regions where public transit works.

    It does not work in Cleveland because the County’s leadership has not made it a priority. Instead, they are focused on real estate deals — casinos, convention centers, a med mart — that have very little chance of generating much.

    The civic process — the ability of leaders in Cleveland to come together and articulate an effective strategy — has broken down. Instead, we have leaders running from the casino to the convention center, to the med mart (Here…No, wait!….Over there…No! Wait, that’s not right…We mean over here!) with their hair on fire.

    The failure to set sensible priorities is rooted in Cleveland, not Washington.