U.S. Sen. Isakson to help kickstart national rail system?
September 7, 2008 at 10:18 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsIt takes an energy crunch for Congress to start using their heads. Jim Galloway, the nicest nattering nabob of negativism over at That Other Paper, reports U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., wants to give rail a chance.
Undeterred, Isakson is about to reach across the aisle again, this time to John Kerry, the Democrat from Boston. The purpose: A revival of this country’s rail system, which — with luck — could give birth to a high-speed passenger train that would careen from Birmingham, through Atlanta, to Washington.
The senators are writing a bill that could be introduced sometime this month, Galloway says. A draft is supposedly being e-mailed back and forth between Atlanta business bigwigs. (Note to bigwigs: Please send it my way as well. I promise I won’t release it on here. Hehehe.)
Isakson said the bill would fundamentally alter our method of capitalizing rail transportation, putting it on a footing similar to the way we fund airports, freeways and seaports. Governments, a combination of state and federal, would acquire the right-of-way and build tracks. User fees would pay for upkeep, levied by private rail corporations that would live or die on their own performance.
By some accounts, the Kerry legislation also permits the raising of $200 billion via bonds to finance a limited number of high-speed rail lines across the country.
(Hat tip to Icarus at Peach Pundit)
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