Train Envy: Will We Ever Get High-Speed Rail in the U.S.?

CBS has "train envy," Streetsblog talks highway trust funds and Seattle tunnels through. These stories, and more, in this week's installment of Infrastructure in the News.

National News

CBS News: Train Envy: Will We Ever Get High-Speed Rail in the U.S.?"
I've long had a love affair with trains. But it's been a long-distance romance, as in...overseas. While other countries get passengers from point A to point B quickly, efficiently and in style, train travel in the U.S. has a long way to go."

Streetsblog Capitol Hill: New House Rules Threaten TIGER Livability Programs
"But there's far more in the new rules that transportation advocates need to be aware of. For instance, it states that money could only be taken out of the highway trust fund for "those activities authorized for the highway or mass transit categories."

News From The States

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Business groups back high-speed rail
A coalition of business groups from the Richmond, Hampton Road, and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. areas made a united show of support yesterday for a high-speed rail network connecting the regions.

WJHG: Gov. Scott meets with Japanese Foreign Minister to discuss high-speed rail
"I sincerely hope that the state of Florida will induct the Japanese system to build a train, the high speed rail. And also with the, the more of the magnitude, I sincerely hope that with the partnership with new Governor Scott we can father and enhance the economic relationship with the state of Florida and Japan."

Fresno Bee: Farmers say it'd be hard to cope if high-speed rail cuts through
California's ambitious plan for high-speed trains is drawing sharp criticism from San Joaquin Valley farmers who fear the project would carve their property into useless pieces, disrupt their work and drive down land values.

Pilot Online: Find money now for state's trains
Virginia will have the opportunity to improve the availability, speed and quality of rail service in coming years. But if state leaders can't identify stable funding for capital improvements and operations, they will not only miss out on that opportunity, they will lose much of the rail service they already have.

The News Star: Professor looks at transportation for poor in South
The executive director of TRIO Programs at the University of Louisiana at Monroe presented her research on transportation and related barriers to access for the poor at the Southern Political Science Association in New Orleans.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Transportation weighs on Western Pennsylvania
Allegheny County voters appear to be more concerned about Pennsylvania's glaring transportation needs than people elsewhere in the state, based on results of a poll conducted for the Tribune-Review.

Seattle Times: $1.4 billion tunnel contract is signed; opposition still working to halt project
The five-year project still faces opposition, but a contract signing makes it that much harder to stop the state's political and legal momentum toward a possible construction start by August. The four-lane highway to replace the old Alaskan Way Viaduct is to be done by the end of 2015.

Star-Ledger: Gov. Christie plans to use ARC tunnel money to pay for repairs to N.J. bridges, roads
The Pulaski Skyway and the Route 7 bridge don't have the same magic ring as the notion of boring a grand tunnel to Manhattan, but the governor argued Thursday they were the best place for New Jersey's transportation dollars.