Passenger Trains > DOT makes $17B in TIFIA grants available for transporta

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Friday that the Obama administration
will make $17 billion available for loans to construct transportation projects.

The loans are part of an expansion of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance
and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program in the recently approved $105 billion
transportation bill. The transportation bill, the Moving Ahead for Progress in
the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), included $1.7 billion for the TIFIA program over
the next two years.

LaHood said Friday that the DOT was making $17 billion immediately, which he
said would generate job growth in a stagnant U.S. economy.

I have little trouble thinking of how to spend $17B on good public transit projects. We could start with:
- Increase the order for new single level cars, now being constructed from 130? cars to about 400.
- Increase the future order for new bi-level intercity cars (CA, IL, MI, etc.) from its beginning number to about 400 as well.

The above idea would only cost about $1B and put more people to work very soon.

Your turn....

What a wonderful thing for LaHood and his associates to give us $17 billion to spend on transit projects. I must write them and thak them for their generosity to we peasants. I wonder where they got that money?

Norm

It does say "loans", not "grants", which implies that they are supposed to be repaid.

Tom Y

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> It does say "loans", not "grants", which implies
> that they are supposed to be repaid.
>
> Tom Y

Straight from the horse's mouth:

http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2012/dot8212.html

There are examples of projects funded under this "grant" with one close to my home, the Presidio Parkway on the San Francisco side of the Golden Gate Bridge. I suppose the "loans" can be paid back by increasing toll?

Since "transportation projects" cover a very wide scope, I'm not particularly excited for passenger rail, as highways and airports will get their share, too. Let's hope the freight railroads, who should be able to pay off loans, work on some projects to improve things for me on the foamer side of things.

aronco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What a wonderful thing for LaHood and his
> associates to give us $17 billion to spend on
> transit projects. I must write them and thak them
> for their generosity to we peasants. I wonder
> where they got that money?
>
> Norm

Well my rudimentary understanding of our system of government tells me that the DOT got the money and the authority to spend it from an appropriation by the "peasants" ' elected representatives in the US Congress.

Dave