BAF IN THE NEWS
Politico Pro: New push for D.C.-New York maglev train back
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/speedy-magnetic-levitation-train-dc-new-york-99505.html
What if a train could get youfrom Washington to Manhattan in an hour? It’s a pitch sure to draw attention in time-constrained Washington, and that’s exactly what a new consortium hopes will stick in travelers’ heads as it pushes to develop a new, expensive magnetic levitation, or “maglev,” train line between the two cities.
(See full clip following “STATE NEWS.”)
Fast Company: This 300-MPH Bullet Train Will Take You From D.C. To New York In Just An Hour
Possibly egged on by Hyperloop optimism, an old proposal for turning the Northeast Corridor into a high-speed transit route has risen from the grave.
Philadelphia Magazine: Ed Rendell Backing 300mph Bullet Train
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2013/11/07/ed-rendell-backing-300mph-bullet-train/
Transportation fetishist Ed Rendell, no surprise, is backing a plan to bring an ultra-fast Japan-style magnetic levitation bullet train to the northeast corridor.
NATIONAL NEWS:
Streets Blog: Last Night’s Quiet Transit Victories
http://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/11/06/last-nights-quiet-transit-victories/
Yesterday was a relatively quiet election day for transportation-related ballot measures, but of the six transit initiatives that came before voters yesterday, six passed, with a seventh too close to call. That’s in line with last year’s 79 percent success rate — 71 percent since 2000. When asked, voters overwhelmingly choose to raise their own taxes to improve public transportation.
The Hill: Amtrak taps new CFO
http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/railroads/189462-amtrak-taps-new-cfo
Amtrak has tapped a new chief financial officer as the rail company prepares for afight in Congress in increasing its funding. Amtrak said on Wednesday that it was appointing Gerald Sokol, Jr. as its CFO.
Next City: Feds Crack Open the Door to Car Sharing
http://nextcity.org/sharedcity/entry/feds-crack-open-the-door-to-car-sharing
The General Services Administration, which serves as something like the office manager of the United States, is newly wondering whether the federal government should participate in car sharing. The agency has issued a Request for Information to get the ball rolling.
Portland Press Herald: For older citizens, lack of transportation a daily struggle
http://www.pressherald.com/news/For_older_citizens__lack_of_transportation_a_daily_struggle_.html
WASHINGTON — Katherine Freund is well aware of the complexity of the transportation problem confronting the nation – and particularly rural states such as Maine – as an estimated 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day in the U.S.
STATE NEWS:
MPR News: Climate change conference aims at how best to adapt
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/11/07/environment/climate-change-conference
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota's climate is changing -- so much so that the state is seeing more record-breaking temperatures, higher dew points and more extreme weather events.
Streets Blog: Imagining a Healthier Transportation System for Michigan
http://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/11/06/imagining-a-healthier-transportation-system-for-michigan/
What would a more sustainable transportation system look like for the Detroit region? Or Michigan at large? Detroit’s regional planning agency didn’t show much foresight when, over the protests of many local jurisdictions, it green-lighted two highway projects totaling $4 billion this summer. But thenon-profit Let’s Save Michigan is trying to help Michigan’s leaders envision a more inspired future, one built around sustainability, equality, and community.
The Washington Post: Maryland gets approval to seek public-private partnership to build, operate Purple Line
Maryland transportation officials received state approval Wednesday to pursue private companies to design, build, operate and help pay for a $2.2 billion Purple Line in the Washington suburbs, marking a major milestone for the light-rail proposal.
Associated Press: The Washington Post: Metro says 20 of 29 NTSB recommendations made after 2009 red line crash now completed
WASHINGTON — Metro says it has completed 20 of the 29 recommendations the National Transportation Safety Board made following the 2009 crash of two red line trains that resulted in the deaths of nine people.
Transportation Nation: When Will D.C.'s Streetcar Run? Officials Stick With 'Soon'
http://www.wnyc.org/story/when-will-dcs-streetcar-run-officials-stick-soon/
D.C.'s first streetcar line in 50 years may be ready for passengers service by spring or early summer of next year, but an exact date remains elusive.
Progressive Railroading: WMATA to solicit development proposals for five properties
For the first time in seven years, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is soliciting multi-site properties for development into transit-oriented projects, agency officials announced yesterday.
The Star Tribune: Met Council paves way to review options for Southwest Corridor
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/230849611.html
Plans for the Southwest Corridor light-rail line are passing back over old ground as officials try to re-examine all possible options for the controversial freight and light-rail tracks.
WTVA: Tupelo considers public transportation options
TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) — According to the American Public Transportation Association, Americans took over 10 billion trips on public transportation in 2012, and now, the city of Tupelo and the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) is looking at ways to adopt its own public transit system.
Politico Morning Transportation
By Adam Snider | 11/7/13
Featuring Kathryn A. Wolfe, Scott Wong and Kevin Robillard
WHAT TO WATCH TODAY — ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’: A Senate Judiciary subcommittee holds a hearing on delayed rules and “justice denied” on mental health and auto safety issues. Oversight panel Chair Richard Blumenthal told MT that the basic problem is that agencies often don’t abide by rulemaking deadlines Congress sets: “The bureaucracy is basically flouting the lawmakers.” In auto safety, Blumenthal said to expect talk of a long-anticipated backup camera rule and the recall of some Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokee models that were prone to fire if rear-ended. The Connecticut senator had a good analogy to sum up how many solutions end up getting lost between Congress and the agencies: “You could almost analogize it to democracy’s lack of rear-view or front-view visibility. Once it’s done, Congress forgets about it until it causes a problem.”
It should be noted: No “bureaucracy” witnesses from NHTSA or DOT will be testifying, so lawmakers won’t get a full picture of the tricky process of major rulemakings and how, to put it basically, some rules are much more complicated than they seem on the surface.
Howard Coble: The senior T&I Republican from North Carolina, long the subject or retirement rumors, gives an update on his political future today, though his office has been mum on whether or not he’ll be leaving Congress. Roll Call: http://bit.ly/1fks4VC
Bike-friendly: The League of American Bicyclists puts out a new round of bike-friendly businesses, including four new “gold” level members. Give it a look: http://bit.ly/17crEk3
D.C. TO NYC IN AN HOUR? Who wouldn’t sign up for that? That’s exactly what a new group hopes as they aim to build a super-fast maglev train that would whisk travelers between D.C. and New York City in an hour. Getting from the District to BWI Airport would take eight minutes thanks to speeds over 300 mph. It might sound like a pipe dream, but some big transportation names have signed on The Northeast Maglev’s board, including two former DOT secretaries and two former governors. If it came to be, the maglev would take a major bite out of Amtrak’s most profitable line, the Acela. Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman said he is “positive” about the maglev plan but admitted it has a few huge hurdles: time and money. “That’s all well and good,” Boardman said after ticking off a list of the maglev’s benefits, “but it’s about the money. It’s about the bucks.” Kathryn and I have the story in today’s POLITICO paper or right here: http://politico.pro/1hlqd7a
HERE WE GO AGAIN: For the second time in a row, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee faces a Republican primary opponent at the same time he’s trying to work on a major highway and transit bill. Last year it was John Mica and redistricting pitting him against Rep. Sandy Adams. This time around, T&I Chairman Bill Shuster faces Art Halvorson, who’s trying to ride a tea party wave that has shepherded some to office while leaving others high and dry. Shuster has a huge cash and name recognition advantage, but it’s still a tightrope no chairman wants to walk: Fending off a primary opponent while trying to write severalmajor and meaningful bills. In Shuster’s mind, it’s not just Obamacare and abortion that can let him prove his conservative bona fides: “User fees are what most conservatives believe in: If you use something, you pay for it,” he said of how to fund next year’s transportation bill. “That’s the fairest way to collect a fee or tax on someone.” Much more in Scott’s story: http://politico.pro/HKFn5B
IT’S THURSDAY, THANKFULLY. Thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports, where today goes out to women. It was on this day in history that a Colorado referendum made it the first state to let women vote (1893), Marie Curie was born (1867) and won her second Nobel Prize (1911) and Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress (1916). Female or male, I’m all ears for your scoops, tips or news: asnider@politico.com. And follow me on Twitter: @AdamKSnider.
“I watch the faces on the passing trains …” http://bit.ly/1iN7U6g
UBER FOR GRANDMAS: Ride-sharing isn’t just a young man’s game. While gallons of ink have been spilled about young urbanites’ love for Uber, Lyft, ZipCar and other companies allowing them to live car-free lifestyles, a Senate panel on aging hearing put the focus on a nonprofit that is essentially Uber for the age 65-and-over crowd. The program, ITNAmerica, relies on volunteers and some paid drivers to bring seniors from their homes to doctor's appointments, grocery stores and social events. Volunteers earn credits they can use to pay for their parents’ rides, donate to lower-income seniors or keep for their own golden years. Riders or their children can also pay between $6 and $11 for a trip. Unlike most existing paratransit services — and yep, even the D.C. Metro — the program is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Kevin has the story: http://politico.pro/1dP22Jq
** Travel Industry Steps Up: The U.S. Travel Association is launching a multiyear campaign to improve America’s infrastructure. Equipped withinnovative research and a grassroots army, representatives from hotels, attractions, gaming companies and more will host Washington’s transportation elite to debate policy and form new coalitions for infrastructure advocacy.Register for this event at no cost by using the promotion code CONNECT (bit.ly/CATTtrav) **
IN TODAY’S FEDERAL REGISTER: The Federal Railroad Administration is handing out $550,000 in safety grants that were left over after $50 million in funding was authorized in a2008 rail law. The money, which can go to passenger or freight rail carriers, suppliers or various levels of government, carry an 80-20 federal-state ratio. Applications are due 90 days from today. Read the full entry in the Fed Reg: http://1.usa.gov/1bZeOmG
NTSB REVIEWS METRO-NORTH ACCIDENT: A Metro-North train in Connecticut that derailed and plowed head-first into an oncoming train earlier this year was sent off the track after it crossed over a broken gage bar (a piece of metal where two rails meet) thatinspectors had noted just days beforehand, an NTSB investigator said yesterday at the agency’s hearing on the accident. That sure didn’t sit well with Sen. Blumenthal, who lit into Metro-North: “I think the record so far establishes pretty deplorable deficiencies in inspections and repairs,” he told Kathryn, but added that so far, the agency appears to be making the right moves to correct the problems. Blumenthal said that so far, Metro-North is “talking the right talk” but that the real question will be “whether they will really make the substantial and far-reaching changes that are needed.” The NTSB hearing continues today. Kathryn has the story: http://politico.pro/HAQhLP
STAFF NEWS: Amtrak has named Gerald Sokol Jr. as the company's new chief financial officer, reporting toBoardman starting Dec. 3 (http://bit.ly/1baAs7p). And Airline for America said it’s nabbed Mark Lopez, formerly an aviation safety inspector for the FAA, to be the group’s new director of technical operations (http://bit.ly/1b6MiRN).
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ)
- Republican mayors aren’t the only ones cancelling transit projects — Democratic mayor-elect in Cincinnati vows to kill streetcar. WSJ: http://on.wsj.com/HKIGd5
- Not very many Metro riders are reporting suspicious bags. NBC Washington: http://bit.ly/1cSWxbK
- Chevrolet recalling 2013 and 2014 Camaros because an air bag warning label isn’t sticky enough and is falling off the sun visor. Detroit Free Press: http://on.freep.com/1cERbVi
- GSA looking for car-sharing ideas to help manage its huge fleet of government vehicles. http://1.usa.gov/1bZgVqD
- Teamsters, in a new alliance with D.C. taxi drivers, sued to stop fines until credit card machine and dome light issues are worked out. City Paper: http://bit.ly/1gs6MbJ
- On the short list to head Microsoft: Ford CEO Alan Mulally. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1907ggi
THE DAY AHEAD: 8 a.m. — The U.S. High Speed Rail Association holds the High Speed RailConference. Los Angeles. http://bit.ly/1dtMJGB
9 a.m. — The NTSB holds a consolidated investigative hearing on two recent Connecticut Metro-North Railroad accidents. 490 L'Enfant Plaza SW.
9 a.m. — The Urban Land Institute holds its 2013 fall meeting. Chicago.
11 a.m. — The Aerospace Industries Association hosts the Civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems Forum. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta speaks at 11:05 a.m. Capital Hilton Hotel, 1001 16th Street NW, Second Floor, Federal A&B Rooms.
11 a.m. — Airlines for America holds a conference call briefing to review “the forecast for Thanksgiving travel and year-to-date 2013 financial results for U.S. passenger airlines.” Teleconference.
1 p.m. — The board of directors for the California High-Speed Rail Authority holds a meeting Sacramento, Calif. http://bit.ly/1hjFXYD
1:30 p.m. — Senate Judiciary Oversight, Federal Rights and Agency Action Subcommittee holds a hearing on “Justice Denied: Rules Delayed on Auto Safety and Mental Health.” 226 Dirksen.
THE COUNTDOWN:Surface transportation policy is up in 328 days and FAA policy in 693 days. The mid-term elections are in 362 days. DOT appropriations run out in 70 days.
CABOOSE — Baltimore trolley two-fer: This double-shot of old photo awesomeness includes two from April 1943 in Baltimore — a 1917 trolley, in service because of the war, on the city’s streets (http://bit.ly/1c0ueqE) and a pair of hauntingly-lit trolleys underground in the Park Terminal (http://bit.ly/16HUq9T).
** Travel contributes $2.0 trillion to the U.S. economy and is an essential part of life. America’s travel experience and the businesses that support it are inextricably linked to the condition of our nation’s infrastructure. Yet, with chronic underinvestment in high-performing modes, policy barriers to connectivity and declining federal revenue, travel in America is changing. While the rest of the world is speeding up, the U.S. is slowing down.
On November 20, the U.S. Travel Association will host Washington’s transportation elite at the Knight Conference Center at the Newseum for the first-ever Connecting America Through Travel Conference. Be there as the travel industry releases new research and launches a new campaign to modernize America’s travel infrastructure. Register for free by using the promotion code CONNECT. (bit.ly/CATTtrav) **
Stories from POLITICO Pro
New push for D.C.-New York maglev train
Shuster takes on the tea party storm
Panel tackles transpo issues for seniors
Blumenthal knocks Metro-North on inspections
New push for D.C.-New York maglev train
By Kathryn A. Wolfe and Adam Snider | 11/6/13
What if a train could get you from Washington to Manhattan in an hour?
It’s a pitch sure to draw attention in time-constrained Washington, and that’s exactly what a new consortium hopes will stick in travelers’ heads as it pushes to develop a new, expensive magnetic levitation, or “maglev,” train line between the two cities.
Spearheaded by The Northeast Maglev, the project has backing so far from U.S. and Japanese investors and boasts a high-powered advisory board that is headed by formerSenate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and includes former DOT secretaries from Republican and Democratic administrations — Mary Peters and Rodney Slater — as well as former Govs. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey.
The plan calls for a line to be built in stages, with the first leg constructedbetween Washington and Baltimore, with a stop at BWI Airport. The travel times are eye-popping: Floating inside a U-shaped guideway on ultra-powerful magnets, the superconducting maglev train would reach 311 mph and shuttle riders from Washington to the airport in about eight minutes. That compares with drive times that can easily top an hour in bad traffic.
But such an ambitious goal raises questions about financing, route siting, rights of way and other local concerns. And that doesn’t include the political issues around a line that could present a direct challenge to Amtrak’s crown jewel, its Northeast Corridor service.
Amtrak president and CEO Joe Boardman said he’s “positive” about the plan for the technology, which has been tested on a 14-mile circuit in Japan, but it faces a number of high hurdles; chief among them are time and money.
“Does it get done in a hurry? No,” Boardman said in an interview. The first leg is projected to take three years just to go through the regulatory process andanother seven for construction. And that doesn’t take into account any of the inevitable speedbumps that arise with a major infrastructure undertaking.
And money is an even bigger issue. As he ticked off some of the project’s benefits, Boardman stopped himself. “That’s all well and good, but it’s about the money,” he said. “It’s about the bucks.”
Boardman knows all too well the problems getting that money, since Amtrak has faced zeroed-out budgets in recent years.
Wayne Rogers, TNEM’s chairman and former chairman of Maryland’s Democratic Party, said the line will be as expensive as it is transformative, and acknowledged that it will need a lot of federal support.
Rogers said the group hopes to build the line from Washington to Baltimore as a sort of demonstration project that would cost “somewhere north” of $10 billion. The Japanese government has pledged “significant financing” to help realize the effort, he said, though he did not elaborate.
For Japan, the maglev line offers a chance to export its new train technology, which can hit speeds of up to 360 mph.
“A large chunk of the first leg financing has been put together with Japanese participation,” he said. “So for the second half, we would see a mix of federal funding and private-sector investment. A large amount of that is going to have to come from the federal government.”
That may be a tough sell in a Congress that has been unwilling to appropriate any money at all, let alone the big investments needed for high-speed rail.
Rogers acknowledged the difficult dynamic, but he warned the cost of inaction was far higher. The Northeast Corridor’s economy is losing $14.5 billion in economic activity every year because of congestion, he said.
“It’s not a question of what’s it cost to do it,” he said. “You have to look at that as well as what does it cost us not to do it.”
He also rolled out an argument that regularly cited efforts to wrest more infrastructure money out of Washington: Infrastructure investment has bipartisan appeal. Polls conducted by TNEM in the Washington-Baltimore corridor show 90 percent of Democrats supported the project, as did 68 percent of Republicans.
Still, asking Congress to fund a newfangled bullet train in the same corridor where Amtrak operates at speeds far above the railroad’s premier Acela service, which averages 86 mph for its 31Ž2 hour trip between New York and Washington, does require a political calculus.
Threatening Amtrak’s ticket sales on the Northeast Corridor — by far its most profitable line — could lead the rest of its long-distance service to crumble unless Congress appropriated even more money for its operations. That will no doubt make Amtrak’s boosters, particularly in the Senate, nervous, and it will mobilize unions that represent the rail line’s employees.
Ed Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, said attempts to expand high-speed rail should be applauded, but that Amtrak needs to be at the center of any serious effort.
“They’ve got the experience, the expertise, the relationship with the government … to be able to actually pull off faster service,” he said. “We would welcome billions for passenger rail but we think that should be going to Amtrak. And they should be at the middle of the table.”
At least for now, though, that doesn’t seem to be in TNEM’s plan.
“Right now this is a privately led venture,” Rogers said. “If we looked at it like airlines, I don’t think that, you know, JetBlue would be saying United Airlines has a seat at their table.”
But Rogers quickly stressed that the proposed maglev line isn’t intended to replace Amtrak, but rather augment it, considering that a study ordered by the U.S. Conference of Mayors shows that the Washington-New York corridor will grow to nearly 40 million by 2042, a 14 percent growth. Filling every maglev train every day would only take 11 percent or so of the potential passengers, he said.
“We believe there will still be a role for MARC trains, still a role for Amtraktrains,” he said. “What we’re really doing is saying … we have to do something in this corridor to increase transportation options because we’re drowning in gridlock.”
Rogers said the cost of a ticket would be “marginally more expensive” than Acela because the line will be very costly to build. A big chunk of that cost is from the plans to tunnel underground for most of the route, which would help avoid most of the NIMBY issues and right-of-way acquisition problems, not to mention enable the train to maintain blistering speeds by sticking to a straight line between the cities.
Shuster takes on the tea party storm
By Scott Wong | 11/6/13
ALTOONA, Pa. — As motorists approach this once-booming railroad town along Interstate 99, two green signs remind them whom they can thank for the four-lane road:“Bud Shuster Highway.”
That’s not to be confused with the Bud Shuster Byway, which zips around the tiny town of Everett, where the legendary former House Transportation Committee chairman has a family farm.
The expressways are the most visible symbol of the millions of dollars in roads, airports and sewer and water projects Shuster funneled to his district during his nearly three decades in Congress. But now that legacy of big-government largesse is threatening to put a tea-party target on the back of his son and successor, Republican Rep. Bill Shuster, just as he settles into that same committee chairman’s seat.
Bill Shuster’s actions in recent weeks have infuriated the conservative base — and handed ammunition to the campaign of tea-party insurgent Art Halvorson. Shuster bucked most of his fellow House committee chairmen and voted with Speaker John Boehner to end the government shutdown and hike the debt ceiling. He was the public face of an $8 billion water-projects bill that powerful conservativegroups oppose. And he said he’s open to imposing a per-mile tax on motorists to help fix the nation’s aging highways.
Still, the Shuster brand is a big advantage in this corner of Pennsylvania, making the race an ideal test case for the hopes of establishment Republicans to reclaim their party from the right-wing insurgents.
Halvorson makes it clear he’s not in awe of Shuster’s family legacy.
“If he is a conservative, he’s not a very good one,” the 58-year-old challenger said in an interview between slurps of chicken noodle soup at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery in Chambersburg. “He goes along to get along. He has no conservative agenda. He’s just doing what the big boys tell him to do.”
Shuster has unrivaled name recognition, has out-raised Halvorson 10 to 1 and had a 52-point lead in one recent poll, but he’s not taking any chances. He’s meeting with sometimes-hostile tea-party groups, hired campaign staff to track Halvorson at public events, and launched a Facebook page and website to “fact check” claims by his opponent. In a phone interview, Shuster took a dig at Halvorson, suggesting the 29-year Coast Guard veteran and real estate developer is a carpetbagger.
Shuster also told POLITICO this week that he may vote against raising the debt ceiling in February unless Republicans can secure additional spending cuts. Halvorson scoffs, saying Shuster has made that promise before.
Still, more than six months out from the May primary, the feeling among several Republican voters in the congressional district’s most populous city is this: We hate what’s going on in Washington, but we’re not quite ready to throw the bum out.
“I wouldn’t say I want to support Shuster. I’m not a fan of his father,” said Howard Gentile, 80, after casting a ballot for Altoona mayor this week with his wife, Patricia, at the Faith Baptist Church. “But I won’t vote tea party.”
A half-dozen other Republicans who trickled into the church on a chilly Tuesday afternoon also didn’t seem ready to dump the seven-term congressman from neighboring Hollidaysburg.
“It’s been a Shuster district for decades,” said one lifelong Altoona resident who would give his name only as Mark. “But it wouldn’t keep me from voting for him.”
Blair County GOP Chairman A.C. Stickel, who’s officially neutral in the race, acknowledged that having a congressman with seniority — and a powerful committee gavel — has its benefits. Shuster has been making the same argument since taking over his father’s former committee at the start of the year.
“I’m sure there’s some people who say: ‘Let’s replace Bill. He’s been there too long,’” said Stickel, who’s known Shuster for 14 years. “But in our system, you have to be there a long time to get things done and have a leadership role. I don’t like it but that’s the system we have.”
Shuster, 53, was traveling outside the district this week but defended his record in the phone interview with POLITICO, taking exception to critics who say he’s insufficiently conservative.
“I have a 91 percent voting record with the American Conservative Union during my time in Congress. I think I’m pretty conservative,” he said.
The chairman has held up his water infrastructure bill that cleared the House 417-3 as a rare example of bipartisanship in a gridlocked Congress, but also as “conservative” legislation that contains no earmarks, deauthorizes billions of dollars worth of idle projects and aims to speed up Army Corps of Engineersreviews of new dams, ports and flood-control projects.
As for the vehicle-per-miles-traveled tax, Shuster said it’s simply “one of the solutions we need to look at” to secure highway spending, but he said he shares civil libertarians’ concerns about installing a transponder in every car. “User fees are what most conservatives believe in: If you use something, you pay for it,” he said. “That’s the fairest way to collect a fee or tax on someone.”
Halvorson said he would not vote for Boehner as speaker. He also held up Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the mastermind of last month’s 16-day government shutdown, as a genuine “leader” and said Republicans should have kept the government shuttered indefinitely until President Barack Obama caved to GOP demands to defund Obamacare and cut spending.
But Shuster disagreed with Cruz’s hardline approach, saying the shutdown was not “a winning strategy” and “caused Republicans damage in the polls.” Republicans should be waging war on the $17 trillion debt, he said.
The fight over the debt ceiling is “where we can extract these significant reforms to entitlements that we must have if we are going to put our fiscal house into order,” Shuster said.
Shuster’s sprawling, southwestern Pennsylvania district is home to rolling hills, dairy farms and the United Flight 93 memorial. It’s coal and railroad country, but hospitals and colleges are big employers too. The Bud Shuster Highway slices through the heart of the district, linking Altoona and State College — home of Penn State University — with Interstate 80 to the north and the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the south.
The 9th Congressional District is also the reddest in the Keystone State: Mitt Romney carried it by 27 points in the 2012 presidential election, while losing the state by more than 5 points.
That may be why Shuster has been courting some of the same tea party groups he’s ignored in the past. In September, he addressed more than 100 members of the Blair County Tea Party in a standing-room-only hotel conference room for anhour and a half. But when Shuster explained the harmful impacts of shuttingdown the government, the crowd responded with insults — and a few expletives, according to participants.
Some of that same frustration was apparent at a Franklin County Republican election night party in the southeastern section of Shuster’s district. Josh Bussard, 20, who heads the county’s Young Republicans, campaigned for Shuster in 2010 before he could vote, but will cast a ballot for Halvorson next year.
“I think the less-informed voters will go to the polls and say, ‘Oh, Shuster’s up again’ instead of the people who want term limits, who understand his voting record,” said Bussard, who made clear he was not speaking on behalf of his group. “The people who are better informed will see that Art’s the better choice.”
Halvorson backer Darren Brown, 33, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, was elected mayor of Chambersburg on Tuesday night, a sign Shuster may want to pay a bit moreattention to this borough of 20,000 near the Maryland border.
“It’s referred to, sometimes, as a dynasty, and I think that’s pretty accurate, that it’s handed down from one Shuster to another,” Brown said. “Now the first Shuster has become a lobbyist and the second Shuster, with all the spending, is following suit with his father.”
Tea party challengers have taken down similarly venerable Republican names in past elections, including former Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar and Utah Sen. Robert Bennett. But the younger Shuster can take some comfort from one sign in Tuesday’s election that the wave may have crested: In a runoff for an open congressional seat in Alabama, establishment-backed Republican Bradley Byrne knocked off tea-party rival Dean Young.
Like Byrne, Shuster has enormous support from business groups, which see federalinvestment in transportation and infrastructure as critical to a bustling economy. Shuster has raised about $1.6 million this cycle, including more than $382,000 in the quarter ending Sept. 30. The transportation industry led all other sectors, dropping $208,000 into Shuster’s campaign coffers, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He has about $1.2 million on hand.
Meanwhile, Halvorson lent his campaign $100,000 and has raised only $43,000 from donors. He had just $125,000 cash at the end of the third quarter. Another GOP challenger, Travis Schooley, has raised little money.
Halvorson’s been endorsed by RedState founder Erick Erickson and received a boost from the conservative Madison Group, which has spent $10,000 on radio ads backing the tea-party upstart and plans to spend more. But before other conservative groups like FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth jump in the race, Halvorson will need to step up his fundraising and demonstrate he can seriously compete with Shuster.
Shuster, who owned a Chrysler dealership in Altoona before succeeding his father in Congress in 2001, said he didn’t know much about Halvorson since “he’s not from the district.”
Asked if he thinks Halvorson’s a carpetbagger, Shuster said: “I’m not sure what that term means. … I don’t know that he’s really from the district. That’s my understanding.”
The carpetbagger charge, Halvorson said, is an attempt to deflect from the realissues. Since 2007, the grandfather of six has lived in the district on a 250-acre farm in Manns Choice, just off the turnpike, where he hunts and grows vegetables. During his service in the Coast Guard, his family lived in Annapolis, Md., as well as Michigan, Alabama and Florida, but they’ve been vacationing in Bedford County for 25 years.
“Of all the places we’ve lived, this is the most beautiful place,” Halvorson said.
Panel tackles transpo issues for seniors
By Kevin Robillard | 11/6/13
Ride-sharing isn’t just a young man’s game.
While gallons of ink have been spilled about young urbanites’ love for Uber, Lyft, ZipCar and other companies allowing them to live car-free lifestyles, a Senate Committee on Aging hearing Wednesday put the focus on a nonprofit that is essentially Uber for the age 65-and-over crowd.
The program, ITNAmerica, relies on volunteers and some paid drivers to bring seniors from their homes to doctor's appointments, grocery stores and social events. Volunteers earn credits they can use to pay for their parents’ rides, donate to lower-income seniors or keep for their own golden years. Riders or their children can also pay between $6 and $11 for a trip.
Unlike most existing paratransit services, the program is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“The solution is sitting in driveways from coast-to-coast,” ITNAmerica President Katherine Freund said during the hearing, adding: “It’s right there and it doesn’t cost any public money.”
Committee Chairman Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine), the only two members to attend the hearing, seemed optimistic ITNAmerica and other public-private partnerships could help seniors get around when it’s no longer safe for them to drive, a problem that is only expected to grow with 10,000baby boomers turning 65 each day for the next 18 years. All those boomers are expected to live six to 10 years after they finish driving.
“The challenge of providing transportation alternatives to our senior citizens is literally growing by the day,” Collins said. “To meet this challenge, we must find reasonable, practical transportation models that allow seniors to stayactive and mobile even after they stop driving.”
Freund became involved in senior transportation issues in the late 1980s after an 84-year-old driver ran over her 3-year-old son, injuring him. The ITN program began in Freund’s (and Collins’s) home state of Maine in the mid-1990s. In 2003, with the help of the Atlantic Philanthropies, she was able to launch ITNAmerica.
The system now has 25 affiliates in 20 states, has delivered 600,000 rides and is growing at a rate of 100,000 rides a year, she said. Affiliates typically use some government money to get going, but are required to be subsidy-free after five years.
Still, Freund insisted the public sector has a role to play. In urban areas, seniors can rely on mass transit, even if it accounts for only 2 to 3 percent of trips taken by the elderly. The Federal Transit Administration is also working toinstall systems that will allow a senior to call for a ride with single phone call or mouse click and is encouraging state DOTs to work with departments on aging.
But of all the challenges that America will face with an aging population, Freund said, transportation is the one that can best be solved by volunteerism.
“You’re not going to go to a volunteer for heart surgery,” she said.
Blumenthal knocks Metro-North on inspections
By Kathryn A. Wolfe | 11/6/13
Sen. Richard Blumenthal lit into Metro-North for the railroad’s track inspections after details emerged about the May derailment and collision of a commuter train during an NTSB hearing Wednesday.
“I think the record so far establishes pretty deplorable deficiencies in inspections and repairs,” Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told POLITICO, though he added that so far, the agency appears to be making the right moves to correct inadequacies.
Wednesday’s hearing was a fact-gathering investigative affair so the NTSB drew no conclusions and offered no analysis. But from investigators' and board members’ questioning, it was clear that concerns focused on Metro-North’s inspection processes, including how paperwork and visual inspections are done, as well as track repairs.
For instance, it appears that a potential factor in the derailment was a brokenjoint bar connecting pieces of track near where the train skidded off. Justdays prior to the derailment, inspectors noted problems with the joint bar — though they didn’t consider it hazardous enough to require immediate action. And it wasn’t the first time there had been a problem on that section of track.
In early April, inspectors discovered a broken joint bar at the same spot and replaced it. They also observed problems with vertical track movement as well as the ballast underpinning the track.
“What does it tell you that in this area of track … several weeks before this derailment, you had broken joint bars in this same area that were replaced, you had [movement] of the ties and problems with ballast in that area, and hereyou’re having the same thing happen again?” asked NTSB Chairwoman Debbie Hersman.
Robert Puciloski, vice president of operations for Metro-North Railroad, acknowledged that more should have been done. He said it means “there’s a condition going on there that needed to be evaluated and taken care of more than was done, that’s absolutely the case.”
Rick Inclima of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees said joint bars can be changed every week, but “you won’t get to the bottom line until you fix the underlying incipient track condition.”
Puciloski said typically, inspectors note conditions and, if they aren’t an imminent threat, it’s up to a supervisor to decide how to handle the reported condition.
But Puciloski said the supervisor for the area of track in question had only been on the job for about a month at the time of the derailment “so he probably didn’t know that history, didn’t have that memory.” He said Metro-North wants to implement an electronic database that would provide supervisors with historical data to help identify problematic trends or underlying problems.
However, there was also a problem with the repair done to the joint bar when it was fixed in April. According to data released at the hearing, the tracks were improperly aligned in a way that made the repair fall afoul of federal regulations.
Blumenthal said that so far, Metro-North is “talking the right talk” but that the real question will be “whether they will really make the substantial and far-reaching changes that are needed.”
“They seem committed, but we’ll be watching like a hawk and monitoring what they actually do on the tracks in making repairs and maintenance,” he said.
For its part, Metro-North took immediate action following the derailment, including a soup-to-nuts reorganization of its track department. Leadership has been changed, new management positions added, and inspector retraining is under way. Metro-North has also in the past vowed to implement the NTSB’s recommendations.
And its management has taken pains to stress to its inspector workforce that they are autonomous and have the authority to request repairs immediately. That hints at potential problems in the agency’s previous safety culture, which will be up for discussion when the NTSB’s investigative hearing reconvenes on Thursday.
BAF IN THE NEWS
Politico Pro: New push for D.C.-New York maglev train back
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/speedy-magnetic-levitation-train-dc-new-york-99505.html
What if a train could get youfrom Washington to Manhattan in an hour? It’s a pitch sure to draw attention in time-constrained Washington, and that’s exactly what a new consortium hopes will stick in travelers’ heads as it pushes to develop a new, expensive magnetic levitation, or “maglev,” train line between the two cities.