Sunday Train: Steel Interstates and Using the Defense Budget to Improve National Security

Note: This post is a central junction ~ the entire post is contained in the locations linked to below. All that is reposted here is the above the fold "teaser". Comment at the community blogs posted below or directly on twitter to @BruceMcF

This is the year that the funding authorization for the Federal Rail Authority expires, and the Obama administration is answering with a bold new plan to invest in this critical piece of any long term sustainable transport system, as described earlier this month at the Transport Polititic:

Total funding for rail activity, both for operating funds and capital projects, would increase from about $1.8 billion in 2013 to more than $6.5 billion in fiscal year 2014. Over the course of five years, about $40 billion would be devoted to rail improvement across the country, a massive expansion paid for with funds “saved” from ending military operations overseas. This would be headlined by a $5 billion “jump-start” stimulus for rail, part of a $50 billion infrastructure package the Administration is hoping Congress will pay attention to.

Rolling out of Voices at the Square, also serving The Stars Hollow Gazette and The HillbillyRreport.net.

Sunday Train: 2013 ~ the Year of American Bikeshare

The Sunday Train is now up at Voice on the Square:

Sunday Train: 2013 ~ the Year of American Bikeshare
New York City gave me Bikeshare for my birthday (June 2):

Citi Bike officially launched to annual members on Monday, May 27. As of 5 p.m., members had made more than 6,000 bike trips, and traveled over 13,000 miles – greater than half the Earth’s circumference! Visit Citi Bike’s blog for more stats, facts and tips. Membership opens to daily and weekly users on June 2.

Well, it opened to people taking out an annual membership on May 27, but I don't live anywhere near New York, so if I get to use it, it will be as a "daily or weekly" user.

The complete Sunday Train can also be found at The Stars Hollow Gazette and The HillbillyReport.org. Feel free to comment at any of those sites, or on twitter @BruceMcF .

Sunday Train: All Aboard for the Cross Illinois Line

While browsing the Midwest HSR Association site recently, I came across this story:

Midwest High Speed Rail Association Lauds Rep. Moffit’s Proposal for New Midwestern Amtrak Link

CHICAGO (May 23, 2013) -- Midwest High Speed Rail Association Executive Director Richard Harnish released the following statement Thursday in response to Illinois State Rep. Donald Moffitt’s (74th District) proposal of a new bill proposing a study leading to the creation of a new east-west Amtrak line in Illinois:

“Rep. Moffitt has identified a missing link in our state’s mass transportation system.

“The addition of a new Amtrak route linking population and commercial centers would be a major enhancement of our rail system, and a stepping-stone to further expansion and improvement of the system.

“Today, if you need to travel between Chicago and Springfield, Galesburg, Peoria, Normal and Urbana-Champaign or over to the Quad Cities, you are most likely to drive.

... “This addition and the public’s utilization of it will help to lay the solid foundation for future modernization--especially for the full implementation of high-speed rail between Chicago and St. Louis and other major midwest destinations.

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The Sunday Train is not located at this site, so neither are comments turned on for this post. This is just a central dispatching office. You can read the complete Sunday Train and comment at the following locations:
Sunday Train: All Aboard for the Cross Illinois Line
Stars Hollow Gazette cross-post
HillbillyReport.net crosspost

Sunday Train: Trains and Not Destroying Civilization

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence

When one first thinks about it, one would think the politics of not destroying civilization should be simple. It seems that "Not destroy civilization, Yes/No" would get a very high "Yes" vote.

In the immediate future in US political, however, its far more complicated than that, given that one party's position is "No", and the other party's position is "Maybe, a little bit of not destroying civilization, if its not too inconvenient".

So, how would we go about not destroying civilization, why is the politics of not destroying civilization so messy, and what in the hell can we do about it?

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Posted at: Voices on the Square

Crossposted at: The Stars Hollow Gazette

Crossposted at: HillbillyReport.org

Crossposted at: Agent Orange

Sunday Train: zOMG these aint REAL HSR trains!

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence

crossposted from Voices on the Square

This is more or less the three year anniversary of the first Sunday Train ~ a bit less than more, since this is the 12th of August 2012 and I think that the first Sunday Train was 16th of August, 2009. It emerged from a variety of blogging I had been doing over the previous couple of years, with a notion that if I set down a target of blogging on Sunday, it would make it easier for people to track the Sunday Train down. It was originally posted at my midnight-populist blogspot, Burning the Midnight Oil, crossposted to Agent Orange, My Left Wing, Progressive Blue and Docudharma, but I was never really enthusiastic about building up my own blog, and nor about the constraints of blogspot, so over time I settled on writing the Sunday Train at a community blog, cross-posting it to other community blogs, and posting the summary to Burning the Midnight Oil, with cross-links to the blogs containing that week's full post.

The crosspost list also varied from time to time: of those original community blogs, I rarely visit My Left Wing or Docudharma much anymore, and the best of Progressive Blue has been folded into the broader coalition at Voices on the Square, which since its launch last month has been the new home base for Sunday Train. The Sunday Train still rolls into Agent Orange (aka "daily kos"), and has for some time also stopped at Hillbilly Report and the Stars Hollow Gazette, and occasionally at the European Tribune.

In celebration of the three year anniversary, more or less, I am reprinting the diary from the 16th August, 2009, "zOMG, these aint REAL HSR trains!"

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posted at Voices on the Square

crossposted at Stars Hollow Gazette

crossposted at HillbillyReport.org

crossposted at Agent Orange