WASHINGTON — The country needs a partnership among “freight railroads, the federal government, Amtrak and other stakeholders” in order to improve the nation’s transportation system and protect the environment, a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee says.
“When we look for ways to improve our nation’s transportation system and protect the environment, nothing should be a higher priority than improving our rail capacity – for freight, passenger and high speed service,” said U.S. Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla.
“I am concerned that one tool we already have for improving capacity – the Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RIFF) loan program – is underutilized,” Mica said. “We must look at ways to better take advantage of the $35 billion capacity of this program, and we must further explore ways to partner federal, state, local and private sector resources to help us achieve the rail capacity that we need.”
Also, Mica recently introduced HR 5644, a bipartisan initiative to solicit proposals for high speed rail in the Northeast Corridor and other corridors around the nation.
“These and other initiatives must be examined if we are going to maintain an efficient transportation system into the future,” Mica said.
— Railfanning.org News Wire
