New York pols from both parties have for many years talked about improving rail service, while not doing much about it. At today's leaders' meeting, Gov. David Paterson and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith both said using federal stimulus funds for high-speed rail was a top priority, and would boost economic development in cities throughout the state. Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos expressed some skepticism about raising expectations that cannot be met. But the actual projects trotted out at the meeting (after the leaders had left to go off to the swearing-in of the state's new top judge) by Timothy Gilchrist, deputy secretary for economic development and infrastructure, were more mundane than high-tech. They involved not magnetic levitation but signal work in Poughkeepsie, building a second track to eliminate the bottleneck between Albany and Schenectady, and building sidings west of Schenectady so trains can get out of each other's way. Those long-mooted projects are doable and should be done -- as should more ambitious ones if and when funding becomes available.
Skelos and others noted that Senate Republicans, when they were in the majority, had been pushing rail improvements. In fact, they were doing most of the pushing and funding in recent years, when Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Assembly Democrats were ignoring the issue, and the national Republican Party continued to view Amtrak as the work of the devil. The national GOP seems to think subsidizing rail service is a uniquely wasteful idea, although they are happy to join with Democrats to spend vastly more money on the nation's roadways and airports (including ones with no public flights). Given the uncertainties about the future supply and price of oil, rail makes more sense than ever, at least in a state like New York. The fact that state leaders seem on board with that (no one raised objections today) shows that New York pols do not get everything wrong.
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