Rail advocates see hope for a major expansion of passenger rail. //end headline wrapper ?>Get a daily rundown of the top stories on Urban Milwaukee
An Amtrak Hiawatha Service train crosses N. Plankinton Ave. near the Milwaukee Intermodal Station. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Stu Nicholson has been trying for decades without success to get Amtrak or any other passenger rail service to come to Columbus, Ohio.
As director of All Aboard Ohio, a passenger rail advocacy group, Nicholson helped explore possibilities, like creating a new route from Chicago to Pittsburgh, with Columbus in the middle.
But for now, Columbus, a city with 878,000 people, the second-largest city in the Midwest, has no passenger rail service. It doesn’t even have a station.
"You and your family could travel coast to coast without a single tank of gas onboard a high-speed train," President Biden said. The map shows 30 new routes across the U.S. that funding could create.
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Looking beyond the $1.9 trillion covid relief bill, President Joe Biden and lawmakers are laying the groundwork for another of his top legislative priorities a long-sought boost to the nation’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure that could meet GOP resistance to a hefty price tag.
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WASHINGTON The $80 billion that President Joe Biden proposes to give Amtrak over eight years in his $2 trillion infrastructure proposal would be a windfall for an enterprise that typically receives $2 billion from the federal government per year.
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The release of President Joe Biden s $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal has proponents of increasing train travel hoping for an upgrade and expansion of rail service, including the long-sought-line between Reading and Philadelphia.
Those hopes were on full display Tuesday during a hearing by the House Democratic Policy Committee with the optimistic title: Back on Track â Investing in Passenger Rail.
Jennie Granger, PennDOT deputy secretary for multi-modal transportation, testified remotely Tuesday. Image from screenshot
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Increased federal funding would be major, Jennie Granger, PennDOT s deputy secretary for multi-modal transportation, told the committee.
Federal funding would help bring the Amtrak and SEPTA systems into a state of good repair and could provide capital to start new service, she said.