Gee, Mass. press, when are YOU going to cover what amounts to quite a pretty big transportation story in Atlanta? What I am seeing from both GA GOP senators is strategically moving to the middle. They are still right wing (and Chambliss is still the slimy GOPer who smeared Max Cleland), but they seem to not be comfortable staying too ideologically pure. Georgia is a weird state politically. It is deep red, yet it still sometimes feels like a traditional old time Democratic state.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/09/14/isakson_railroad.htmlQ & A: Isakson talks about high speed rail proposal
Georgia republican supports Sen. John Kerry’s railroad initiative
By ARIEL HART
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, September 14, 2008
In the midst of a faltering economy and a transportation funding crisis, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is planning to introduce what appears to be a major rail initiative, and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) is preparing to join him.
The idea is to finance an interstate high-speed rail network that could serve as the spine for local transit lines. Saying the current system is “broken,” Isakson advocates treating rail just as the government treats airports: The government builds the airports, and the airplanes that ferry passengers are private.
Kerry’s office wouldn’t answer questions about the measure, dubbed the High Speed Rail for America Act, but a letter he sent to colleagues talks big: “$200 million per year in grants, $8 billion in tax-exempt bonds, $10 billion in tax-credit bonds for high-speed intercity rail facilities, and $5.4 billion in tax-credit bonds for rail infrastructure.”
We talked to Isakson about the idea.
Q: Tell us about the initiative.
A: I have been very interested in the possibility of a high-speed rail line from Birmingham to Washington , very similar to the line from Boston to Washington that exists today. It’s … a corridor that has a great deal of congestion on the interstates like I-85, and it’s a great way to travel. … But I know the big deal with rail is being able to get the capital together at the beginning to put in the infrastructure to put in lines like that line. Sen. Kerry’s bill focuses on raising capital. … Given the fact we’ve gone through the difficulties that we have on energy, the price of gasoline, the limited supply of oil, it makes an awful lot of sense looking to the future to make investments in those types of transportation systems that will meet our needs as the 21st century unfolds.
Q: How big is what you’re proposing?
A: I don’t want you to go off on some track that I’ve got some grandiose plan for the world in terms of rail. … Kerry’s introducing legislation that deals with the funding of rail infrastructure, which from my interest, that goes back to the Birmingham to Washington run.
Q: If Kerry came out with this kind of more grandiose, much, much larger system idea, would you be inclined to support it?
A: I support creating the financing mechanism to reinvigorate rail in the United States of America and to focus on the things I’ve repeated myself on. … If that’s a part of the Kerry legislation, yes I can. And it is.
More at the link.