Read full article here.
"The President's call for a renewed focus on infrastructure investment - including high speed rail - is critically
important to keeping American competitive in the 21st century," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "We
look forward to working with the White House - and Congressional leaders in both parties - to base our infrastructure investments
on economics, not politics."
The President outlined the following proposals for infrastructure investment in
his State of the Union address to attract new businesses to our shores and move people, goods, and information:
- Re-double
efforts to repair roads, bridges and rails which will lead to increased job creation.
- Revolutionize infrastructure
investment by attracting private capital and ensuring that we pay for all of our investments.
- Fund projects based on
what's best for the economy not politics.
- Give 80 percent of Americans access to high speed rail within the next 25
years.
- Connect 98 percent of Americans through major investment in broadband infrastructure.
Excerpts from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s testimony to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure:
Today, our nation invests just over two percent of our
GDP in infrastructure. Meanwhile, Europe invests at twice that rate and China at almost three times it.
In
2007, I visited Shanghai. I landed at the airport and got on a magnetic levitation train capable of traveling at 250 miles
per hour. Other countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East are building bullet trains too. So what is America waiting
for?
If we’re going to maintain our global economic competitiveness, we must re-commit to infrastructure.
High-speed rail would add the equivalent of about 1,900 lane miles of interstate – except, of course, this would be
an interstate with a speed limit of 220 mph.
High-speed rail in the Northeast would be a boon for our region and
our country in other ways. It would generate travel and tourism, raise property values and cut pollution and dependence
on foreign oil. And by reducing congestion on our highways, at our airports and on our commuter trains – it would
increase economic activity.
We estimate that high-speed rail would generate more than $7 billion in economic activity
and create about 100,000 new jobs by 2040. Because when businesses and industries are brought closer together they inevitably
see greater profits, creativity, and productivity.
President Obama and Congress have taken a good first step by allocating
$10 billion for high-speed rail. And I was encouraged that the President reaffirmed this commitment during the State of
the Union, setting a goal of giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years.
Funding for
high-speed rail projects has been divided across 36 states, spreading our money so thinly that we run the risk of achieving
nothing at all. In fact, the current Federal plan allots just over one percent of all high-speed rail spending for the Northeast.
That simply doesn’t make sense.
Especially because Acela is the only profitable line run by Amtrak and the
Northeast is the only corridor where there’s demonstrated high demand for high-speed rail.
What we need is
a new approach to spending transportation money – one that’s not dictated by politics, but based on economics.
We might not get all the routes we want, but we will get the high-speed trains we need.
Read more.
From this week new edition of Esquire magazine, on stands now, Mike Bloomberg's profile:
The rail stops are
all at shopping malls and smart growth communities with condos, homes close to the grocery, and shopping areas.
"..Rail
flyways connect all the downtown buildings creating on vast luxurious mall. The rail CEO explains to Bloomberg. Rail
transit authority retains the right to develop land around the stations. They turn the rail stations into giant malls.
Trains deliver customers right to the mall near their office, and then back to the mall near their home. Of course there
is profit from the development, advertising, telcom services, and so on and that pays for a third of the rail fare. That actually
creates an integrated business.."
Mike Bloomberg in Esquire magazine. On stands now.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/
