By Jeff Davis
As Jeff Davis explains in an article for the Eno Center for Transportation, the FHWA has lost buying power, getting less “bang for the buck” on projects. “This was the 11th straight quarter of cost increases. The July-September 2023 NHCCI of 3.456 is a 69 percent increase in highway construction costs since the October-December 2020 quarter.”
According to the report, previous work on contracting consistently points to the need for positive, healthy relationships between the public agency and the private contractor to achieve the best outcomes for both parties, their workers and the riding public. The report notes when there is public and private alignment, the public interest is protected.
By Jeff Davis
Among the provisions that Republicans and rail interests have taken issue with is one that mandates a two-person crew for “high-hazard” trains. Jeff Davis, a senior fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation think tank in Washington, says the railroads see that as “a gratuitous giveaway to the unions who have been advocating the two-person rule since long before East Palestine, and which the railroads say would never pass objective cost-benefit analysis.”
“People lived and worked in those areas, they shopped in those areas, people knew each other, people could walk from place to place in thriving downtowns, and there was a real sense of connection to your community — you weren’t reliant on cars,” Plotch said. “That’s the trolley car story.”
“It’s not a ‘if you build it, they will come’ type of scenario,” Puentes said. “It would actually be fitting a need.”
All this requires more space, shipping materials and the use of fossil fuels, says Robert Puentes at the Eno Center for Transportation.
“Obviously, the bigger the retailer, the bigger the impact and the more infrastructure intensive it’s going to be,” he said.
“It’s not a ‘if you build it, they will come’ type of scenario,” Puentes said. “It would actually be fitting a need.”
“It’s mostly owned by the freight rail companies, who have their own businesses to run and their own freight to deliver,” said Robert Puentes, CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation.
“It’s not a ‘if you build it, they will come’ type of scenario,” Puentes said. “It would actually be fitting a need.”
The “sweet spot,” said Robert Puentes, the president and CEO of Eno Center for Transportation, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C., is “about 400 to 500 miles, where it’s too short to fly, too long to drive.”
“It’s not a ‘if you build it, they will come’ type of scenario,” Puentes said. “It would actually be fitting a need.”
A realistic goal would be to build out rail systems that link major metropolitan areas with economic connections, emulating Amtrak’s Northeaster Corridor, said Robert Puentes, the CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation, a nonprofit think tank.
“It’s not a ‘if you build it, they will come’ type of scenario,” Puentes said. “It would actually be fitting a need.”
“We’ve seen that the normal workweek has changed fundamentally,” said Robert Puentes, president of the non-profit Eno Center for Transportation in Washington, and a regular Metro commuter.
New York has by far the biggest transit system with the highest ridership in the U.S., and its leaders are uniquely attuned to the value of transit to the city and state, noted Philip Plotch, an Eno Center researcher who moderated the event. How can advocates make the case in other places?
“It’s not a ‘if you build it, they will come’ type of scenario,” Puentes said. “It would actually be fitting a need.”
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