Infrastructure

Rebuilding and Renewing America

America 2050 has launched a "Rebuilding and Renewing America" campaign in response to the serious challenges of repairing the nation's deteriorating, inadequate infrastructure systems and building capacity for sustainable population and economic growth in the future.
We are calling on the federal government to develop a National Infrastructure Investment Plan that identifies investments in integrated systems of roads, rails, and ports, electricity transmission and the "smart grid," broadband communications, and water infrastructure to help America compete in the global economy and transition our fossil-fuel dependent economy to a low-carbon future.

In the absence of federal action, America 2050's national committee of civic, business, and community leaders are beginning to develop the components of the National Infrastructure Investment Plan and recommendations to reform outdated and ineffective federal transportation, energy and water policies.

From 2008-2009, America 2050 is hosting a series of megaregion forums around the country to build support for a national infrastructure investment plan and indentify key infrastructure priorities in the 11 megaregions around the country.

Our goal for shaping the infrastructure investment plan is to promote a "triple bottom line" strategy for infrastructure development in the United States. This concept refers to using environmental sustainability and social equity measures as the other important "bottom lines" to consider in weighing investment decisions in addition to financial return on investment. This is a cross-cutting theme for all our discussions and activities.

Coupled with the articulation of guiding principles and criteria for federal investment, such as the triple bottom line, the national infrastructure investment plan will shape the different pieces of legislation, providing the bold and compelling vision that is currently needed to catalyze change. 

Recent Entries

Amtrak recovers more of its operating expenses from ticket revenue than any other railroad in the nation.
Amtrak recently sent its fiscal year 2014 budget to Congress, which outlined the incredible progress the railroad has made in recent years. Amtrak makes critical connections across the country, moving nearly one million people on commuter and intercity rail services each day, and breaking annual ridership records in nine out of the last ten years. In March 2013, Amtrak moved more passenger than any other month in its history and is on pace to break another all-time annual ridership record. Amtrak has also become more efficient and self-sufficient, covering 88% of its operating costs with ticket fares and other non-federal revenue. In 2012, ticket sales reached a record $2 billion. However, Amtrak continues to need financial support from the federal government, particularly for capital expenses to maintain aging infrastructure concentrated on the Northeast Corridor and upgrade its fleet of trains.

In 2014, Amtrak is requesting $373 million for operating support, more than 20% less than Congress appropriated last year and 34% less than was appropriated in 2010. On the capital side of the ledger, Amtrak is requesting just over $2 billion.

We need your help to send the message to Washington that Americans want a strong national passenger rail network. Please take a moment to call or write your representatives in Congress and ask them to fully fund Amtrak's budget request. Visit www.govtrack.us/congress/members to find contact information for your elected officials. Then, make a call or write an email asking them to sign on to a letter of support for Amtrak's budget request that is being circulated by Senator Frank Lautenberg. 

The independent, nonpartisan, federal watchdog agency, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), gave the California high-speed rail project passing marks in an audit released last Friday. The report found that the California High-Speed Rail Authority has produced "reasonable" ridership and revenue forecasts in its Revised 2012 Business Plan, while also pointing out that the project's cost estimates could be improved and that future funding for the project remains uncertain. Jeff Morales, CEO of the Authority, called the GAO's report, "an important validation from a highly respected government watchdog." "This is a very good, very strong, report card." Dan Richard, board chairman of the Authority said. "It's not straight A's, but we will aspire to improve in the areas where the GAO tells us we can do much better."

The Authority's business plan forecast that annual ridership will grow to between 16 million and 27 million by 2030, depending on various future conditions, such as the price of fuel. The plan's high ridership scenario assumes a fuel price of $6.11 and the low scenario assumes a price of $2.60 in 2030. Fares for high-speed rail are assumed to be 83% of San Francisco-Los Angeles airfare in 2009. The plan also projected that the high-speed rail system would generate annual revenues of between $1 billion and $1.8 billion in 2030 and proved that no public operating subsidies will be required under any scenario.

Read the GAO report.

The Federal Railroad Administration is currently managing a comprehensive planning effort to define, evaluate and prioritize future levels of investment in the Northeast Corridor (NEC) through 2040. This effort, launched in February 2012, called NEC FUTURE, will produce a Service Development Plan that articulates the overall scope, alternatives and approach for proposed improvements, and a Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement that evaluates and identifies ways to address broad, corridor-wide environmental impacts due to these improvements. This process is a federally-required step before major construction to overhaul the corridor's aging, unreliable, and congested infrastructure can begin.

But, before the FRA could analyze the impacts of the multitude of visions for improved NEC rail service, first it needed to narrow down the alternative visions to a reasonable number by weeding out the alternatives that are clearly inferior to others. So far, they've winnowed the list down to 15 alternative visions. Earlier this week, the FRA published its new "Preliminary Alternatives" report, which contains descriptions of these 15 different visions of the NEC, ranging from mundane to ambitious. The FRA hopes to carry around 8 or 9 alternatives forward to the Tier 1 EIS process to be weighed against the "no action" alternative (essentially doing the bare minimum to keep the corridor operating safely). The FRA's goal is to have established a final preferred alternative by mid-2015.

An article in the latest edition of the Economist entitled, "A Time for Renewal" describes several different ways that governors around the country are getting creative about raising funds to pay for their states' critical infrastructure needs.

The article shows how federal funding is increasingly tapped as the Highway Trust Fund, the source for most of the federal government's transportation infrastructure spending, is running dry. The Congressional Budget Office's most recent projections for the Highway Trust Fund show that the gas tax is not generating nearly enough to cover all of our highway and transit expenses, and this scenario will only get worse as Americans continue to drive less and buy more efficient cars. As the graph above shows, starting in 2015, the Highway Trust Fund will end the year with a negative balance, accruing larger and larger shortfalls as time goes on. Even this bleak situation will still require transferring tax dollars from the U.S. Treasury to cover shortfalls in 2013 and 2014.


Many states are not waiting around for policy makers in Washington, D.C. to figure out a solution to this federal funding problem. Many states are coming up with their own creative ways of raising new revenues within their own borders. Some states are increasing fees on users of the transportation system, either by increasing highway tolls or transit fares. Some are increasing their states' sales taxes or taxing specific things like sweets, alcohol or gambling. Others are turning to public-private partnerships.

In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has created the Chicago Infrastructure Trust (CIT) to help attract private capital to pay for public infrastructure improvements. PBS recently published a great video primer on the CIT with Rahm Emanuel and his top aides describing it in their own words. View it here.

Last month, the Federal Railroad Administration issued a Record of Decision for one of the initial construction segments of the California High-Speed Rail Project, between Merced and Fresno in the Central Valley. This approval was the last major hurdle before construction can begin, which is now on target to break ground in 2013. Completion of the project's initial operating segment is slated for 2021.

Construction phasing for this project is complicated. The initial operating segment, 130 miles between Merced and Bakersfield, is comprised of four construction phases, two of which are between Merced and Fresno. These two construction phases are what are now cleared for construction. This work will entail constructing the spine, of what will ultimately be the statewide high-speed rail system, linking San Francisco and Los Angeles through the Central Valley in under two hours.

Amtrak Breaks Ridership Record

Amtrak recently announced that the railroad broke their all-time annual ridership record for the ninth time in 10 years in fiscal year 2012, carrying 31.2 million passengers, surpassing the previous record, set last year, by one million trips. More people rode Amtrak trains in July 2012 than during any other month in the company's history. Since 2000, Amtrak ridership has grown by nearly 50%, as people seek out alternatives to highway traffic congestion, and hassles and delays at airports. However, these are not the only milestones that Amtrak has achieved of late.

In the most recent edition of the San Francisco Urban Planning and Research Association's publication, The Urbanist, two articles strengthen the already solid case for high-speed rail in California. The articles were written initially for an America 2050 research seminar sponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Regional Plan Association this spring. Not only can the state afford to fund the project, argues SPUR Regional Planning Director Egon Terplan in "Getting High-Speed Rail On Track," but two of the state's most influential industries - the Hollywood media and entertainment industry and Silicon Valley technology sector - would be knit more tightly than ever before by a high-speed rail system that would realize "the economic potential of enhanced access and exchange across the state," a benefit discussed detailed in Executive Director Gabriel Metcalf's "Hollywood Vs. Silicon Valley."

linc-pfr rail skyscrapers Japan is-16069974.jpg

A much cited essay by the UCLA Anderson Forecast, which concludes that the high-speed rail corridor connecting Tokyo and Osaka did not generate discernible economic benefits to the region it serves, from its opening in 1964 to 1990, is flawed. Based on the findings, the study's authors argue that California's high-speed rail system will not generate the significant economic benefits that the California High Speed Rail Authority's business plan predicts. However, the methodology adopted in the Anderson study is questionable and the comparability of Japan in the 1960s to California in the future is doubtful.

Read Regional Plan Association's critique of Anderson Forecast.

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