Party Platforms Differ On Rail Transit

Again, very little surprise here, but the two national party platforms are in stark contrast when it comes to rail transit projects across the country.

From the Democrats’ newly released platform:

We will fight for immediate investments for highways, transit, rail, and aviation and for the creation of a national infrastructure bank to help modernize our infrastructure, put hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job, and help businesses grow.

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We will continue to partner with local communitiesto support their sustainable developments such as passenger rail, bicycle and pedestrian paths, andother projects to support livable cities.

From the Republican platform last week:

America’s infrastructure networks are critical for economic growth, international competitiveness, and national security. Infrastructure programs have traditionally been non-partisan; everyone recognized that we all need clean water and safe roads, rail, bridges, ports, and airports. The current Administration has changed that, replacing civil engineering with social engineering as it pursues an exclusively urban vision of dense housing and government transit.

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Amtrak continues to be, for the taxpayers, an extremely expensive railroad. The public has to subsidize every ticket nearly $50. It is long past time for the federal government to get out of way and allow private ventures to provide passenger service to the northeast corridor. The same holds true with regard to high-speed and intercity rail across the country.

— Michael Levine