Secretary LaHood:
Here's how to allocate the $8 billion in high-speed rail money.
1. Half goes to California high-speed rail.
As California goes, so goes the nation. This is a premiere system, with trains going 200 mph, between two highly visible and populated metro areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
This line has to be the model. Whether it is "shovel ready" or not, move this line towards reality.
Pick two other projects based on this criteria:
2. Ridership will immediately make it a winner.
It doesn't really matter what lines you fund, they just need to be "winners." Then everyone else will get money for more trains. This is the all-important criteria. Pick a line that will be a winner quickly.
- One in the midwest, probably with Chicago at one end.
3. Make it "photo ready."
Do not fund a train between Chicago and Detroit, for example. The photographers and reporters will not paint a pretty picture coming into Detroit, regardless of the ridership. Connect two photo-ready cities that people will love to see in pictures.
My picks:
* Chicago to Minneapolis, going through 3 states and between two great cities.
* Atlanta to either Raleigh, NC or Birmingham, AL. Send a message to the south that trains are for everybody, everywhere, not some elitist or socialist tax drain. Get southerners on board.
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