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New York Gets Its High-Speed Rail Plan Back on Track

In April, New York’s plan for high-speed rail through upstate appeared in jeopardy after the state’s high-speed rail project manager abruptly quit, reportedly because state officials had misled the public about key aspects of the plan. But NYSDOT and the federal government seem to have righted the ship. New York recently received the first $1 million of its $151 million in promised federal rail funding, allowing it to begin study of improvements to the Empire Corridor between Albany and New York City.

Last month, NYSDOT named a new project manager, and Gov. Paterson announced that the freight company CSX, the state, and federal railroad administrators had reached two agreements that will allow the project to move forward. Most of the corridor is owned by CSX and currently used by CSX and Amtrak.

The first, “framework” agreement addresses the “core principles that will guide” the state and CSX, with the second agreement enabling NYSDOT to begin an environmental impact statement for the Empire Corridor, according to the release. The “framework” agreement mandates that for trains to travel over 90 miles per hour in this corridor, there must be at least a 30-foot separation between the CSX-owned tracks and the new tracks built by the state. If tracks are not separated by 30 feet, the speed of the trains would have to be lowered.  New York is seeking to run 110-mph service.

It was a dispute over the need for this separation that prompted the state’s original high-speed rail project manager, Ann Purdue, to quit in April. After the disagreement remained unresolved for weeks, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood appointed Federal Railroad Administration Deputy Administrator Karen Rae, formerly a top administrator with NYSDOT, to work with NYSDOT and CSX. Not long after, NYSDOT hired a new project manager, Marie Corrado, and the three parties announced their agreement.

While elected leaders including Governor Paterson and Rep. Louise Slaughter praised these latest agreements, Sen. Charles Schumer made clear his apprehension, telling the Times Union that “It’s a good thing that the parties are talking, but there are still many questions left unanswered.” Indeed, these agreements are no assurance that the project will be implemented after the environmental study is completed, which is expected to be 2012.

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13 years ago

Excellent! It should be viewed as a new type of Eirie Canal. There were sceptics even in Gov Clinton Dewit’s time.

Consier the following proposal:

Is the Proposed Trans Global Highway a solution for future population concerns and global warming?

One excellent solution to future population concerns as well as alleviating many of the effects of potential global warming is the Frank Didik proposal for the construction of the “Trans Global Highway”. The Didik proposed Trans Global Highway would create a world wide network of standardized roads, railroads, water pipe lines, oil and gas pipelines, electrical and communication cables. The result of this remarkable, far sighted project will be global unity through far better distribution of resources, including heretofore difficult to obtain or unaccessible raw materials, fresh water, finished products and lower global transportation costs.

With greatly expanded global fresh water distribution, arid lands could be cultivated resulting in a huge abundance of global food supplies. The most conservative estimate is that with the construction of the Trans Global Highway, the planet will be able to feed several billion more people, using presently available modern farming technologies. With the present global population of just under 7 billion people and at the United Nations projection of population increase, the world will produce enough food surpluses to feed the expected increased population for several hundred years.

Thomas Robert Malthus’s famous dire food shortage predictions of 1798 and his subsequent books, over the next 30 years, failed to take into consideration modern advances in farming, transportation, food storage and food abundance. Further information on the proposed Trans Global Highway can be found at http://www.TransGlobalHighway.com .

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[…] and its private railroads, CSX, Pan Am Railroads, and Norfolk Southern, a challenge New York State has found difficult in its attempts to build high speed rail between Albany and […]

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