From The Detroit News
Karen Bouffard/ Detroit News Lansing Bureau, October 31, 2011
Lansing— Gov. Rick Snyder (R) hopes to seamlessly connect freight and commuter train systems with Canada, he told transportation and environmental officials at Michigan Rail Summit 2011 Monday in Lansing.
Snyder expanded on the transportation vision he laid out last week in Southfield, where he unveiled a comprehensive plan for roads and bridges, mass transit, ports, sewers and other infrastructure.
The governor said Michigan requires commuter and freight rail systems as the center of what he views as a trade corridor that stretches from Montreal to Chicago and St. Louis.
“Our partners are some other states, but also some provinces and the country of Canada,” Snyder said.
The summit was attended by federal transportation officials including U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary John Porcari, who said it will take as much commitment to build an interstate rail system as it did to build the nation’s interstate highway system.
“What America needs today is a similar commitment to high-speed rail,” Porcari said. “We have a proud history of investing in big things when times are tough.”
Kirk Steudle, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation, said the biggest obstacle to moving forward with Michigan’s rail system is funding.
“The operating funds are the huge piece,” he said. “It doesn’t just come out of thin air.”
Michigan has secured roughly $500 million in federal and state money for rail transportation over the past two years to improve speeds, rebuild train stations and make critical track improvements on Amtrak’s Detroit-to-Chicago line.
Snyder last week unveiled a comprehensive plan for the state’s infrastructure that included plans to restructure the state’s system of funding roads by ditching the 19-cent retail gas tax paid at the pump in favor of a tax charged on the wholesale price of gasoline and diesel fuel.
Snyder said Michigan would still be $1.4 billion short of road revenue on top of the revenue raised by the wholesale fuel tax and suggested measures including a $120 increase in state vehicle registration fees and allowing communities to assess up to an additional $40 in vehicle registration fees with voter approval.
The governor also rolled out a plan to start mass transit in Metro Detroit with a system of high-speed buses connecting Detroit, its suburbs, Ann Arbor and Metro Airport.
Hugh McDiarmid Jr., communications director with the Michigan Environmental Council, which organized the summit, said Snyder’s plan is a positive first step.
“We’re encouraged by it both as a starting point to get our roads and infrastructure in better shape, and in the commitment he made to infrastructure that serves more people and brings more convenience and more options to people across the state,” McDiarmid said.
