Friday, January 21, 2011

Is RiSny's Commitment to Rail Waning?


In a recent interview with AnnArbor.com, Governor Rick Snyder gave a noncommittal response when asked about the viability of high speed rail in Michigan. Transport Michigan is worried:
Michigan needs a 21st-century transportation system. A commitment to "look pretty hard at it" is not enough. We've been "looking" at various transit systems for about a century.

Snyder's own position paper articulated the case for transit and high-speed rail more forcefully than most other Michigan politicians have. Why the backtracking? As some commentators have observed, Snyder's need to contend with a skeletal budget and conservative majorities in both houses of the Legislature could make him think twice about the greener grounds he staked out in the election.

Yet that's no excuse. Michigan elected Snyder on a promise to reinvent Michigan. Reconstructing our transit and rail networks is essential to that end. The governor owes it to Michiganders of both parties to be a forceful advocate for high-speed rail, not follow the suicidal path that Ohio and Wisconsin's governors have taken. The State of the State address tomorrow deserves our careful scrutiny.


As we have noted previously, we are big fans of high speed rail.

1 comment:

  1. I want my high speed rail and I want it now!
    .... or like soon-ish would be cool too.

    ReplyDelete