| Stimulus bill holds windfall for transit and passenger rail
The economic stimulus bill that is to be voted on today, Feb 13, by the House and Senate reportedly contains $8.4 billion for transit, $8 billion for high-speed rail construction, and $1.3 billion for Amtrak. The Amtrak money is presumably for capital projects such as equipment repair, station repair and construction, and perhaps acquisition of new equipment. Amtrak has been working on a 5-year equipment plan that includes overhauling 21 Superliner cars, 67 Amfleet and 4 Amfleet II cars, and purchasing new Acela, Surfliner, Talgo and Viewliner cars. Railpac.org editor Russ Jackson has pointed out the sizeable
number of Superliners at Beech Grove needing overhauling, noting that the
cars can be seen on Google maps by going to
According to the AP, the $8 billion for high-speed rail was upped from the earlier $2 billion at the last minute at the request of President Obama and Sen. Harry Reid. The California high-speed rail line would be the obvious beneficiary of this largesse, and Reid stated that Los Angeles-Las Vegas could also benefit from it. Many rail advocates are hoping that the Sunset Limited
route will benefit by being restored to its full length. There is requested
money in the bill for station work on the route.
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