New Canaan News~Review
By Frank Luongo
It is past time for the United States to face up to the reality that it has a seriously challenged transportation system that could stand in the way of future economic growth, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4) said Monday.
"That's a huge inconvenient truth, as Al Gore said about global warming. We have to have an honest dialogue on the issue, telling people things they might not want to hear and should have heard a long time ago ," Shays said in opening a forum at Westport's Town Hall auditorium on the future of transportation. "Sadly, we have been kicking the can down the line," Shays said in characterizing the way past political leaders have been handing the problem off to their successors. Meanwhile, Shays said, European Union countries and China have been surging ahead in new technologies, such as fast-rail freight trains. In a statement released at the forum, Shays said the nation's "transportation system infrastructure is crumbling," citing as an example the collapse last August of the eight-lane bridge in Minneapolis that had spanned the Mississippi River since 1967, which, at the time of the collapse, had daily traffic account of 140,000 vehicles. "It is no longer good enough just to maintain our existing infrastructure. We must have roads, rails and bridges that we can be proud of and on which we can travel safely," Shays said in a release.
Calling conditions on Interstate 95 a "nightmare" for the region in its funneling of people and product in and out of the area, Shays is proposing more funding for a mix of transportation facilities, such as the $61 million obtained for the Bridgeport Intermodal Center. Shays urged the 2008 presumptive presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, to engage in an "honest conversation" about transportation needs to provide the winning candidate with a "mandate" for action in office. The forum focused on next year's congressional reauthorization of federal transportation funding under the Transportation Equity Act, which, Shays said, is expected to run into a $3 billion deficit in the highway trust fund in the 2009 fiscal year. That deficit, Shays said, would result in a 34-percent reduction in federal highway money. "Connecticut stands to lose $160 million as a result of this cut," he said. Francis McArdle, a forum panel member from New York, served on the National Commission on Transportation and Finance, which was created by Congress in 2005 to create a 50-year framework for federal funding of surface transportation. He said a new vision is needed to find transportation solutions for a population expected by many to reach at least 450 million within 50 years, 150 million more than the current population, and for an economy, which has the potential to double in size over the same time period. "You can't even maintain, let alone have growth, in a highway system that's financed by an 18-cent tax on a gallon of gasoline," McArdle said, referring to the way the highway trust is funded. That approach is "broken and bankrupt" and cannot be sustained with gasoline costing $4 to $5 a gallon, McCardle said. Panelist Joseph McGee, vice president of The Business Council of Fairfield County, agreed that there would have to be "more taxes one way or another." He said it might be time to revive tolls as user fees to help finance public investment in transportation infrastructure. Forum panelist Robert Yaro, the president of the Regional Plan Association for the New York Metropolitan Region, the largest urban area in the country, said it's time to plan for a new national investment structure to deal with long-range transportation issues. "We've only had two national plans, one in 1808 for canals and roads and another in 1908 for conservation. In 2008, we've reached a good point for a third plan," Yaro said.
Click here to read more about Christopher's views on transportation issues
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