93% Say A Plan Does Not Exist

Did you know that there is a company with a specialty in infrastructure strategy and product development on a global scale? No, they are not located in Lexington nor are they planning to move here, but the fact that they exist encourages me. That means that someone is looking out for the built environment of the facilities that connect us or enable us to connect with others.

CG/LA Infrastructure, Inc., which has been around for 25 years and is considered by some to be an industry leader, has just released their latest survey on infrastructure priorities in America. The survey questions were asked of high level executives from all regions and disciplines of the building industry. So, were their conclusions surprising to most folks? Maybe not.

93% believe that the US has no overall infrastructure plan. Wow, that is not news to just about everybody.

Why is it that when we have such huge systems as the Interstate Highways, the national power grid, massive pipeline connections for both oil and natural gas, multi-state water supply lines for our larger cities and even our renewed and growing freight rail network, there is NO overall plan to coordinate them? Do the systems not compliment each other as a whole?

Without a plan there seems to be “…potential for disaster at every turn." as one executive put it. As we have seen in California in the last few weeks, just a small number of minor inconveniences to the petroleum refining system have caused huge headaches for motorists of that state and for many others. A small “glitch” in one system can be magnified through the interdependence of other systems.

57% of respondents encourage public-private partnerships as an important action which can be taken to solve our present situation. 47% favor increasing the gas tax, which has not increased since 1993 and now buys about half of what it did then in infrastructure improvements. (Very politically unpopular) 44% mention the creation of a national infrastructure bank which in this political landscape of gridlock, both in Washington and around the country, may be extremely difficult to do.

In terms of highest or above-average priority for infrastructure investment, it should surprise no one that 79% list our nation’s bridges as needing repair. There is a growing list of sub-standard bridges right here in Fayette County and Central Kentucky. Transportation for America has a map which shows some of the worst. Water and waste-water systems are also high on this list. Our own experience with the EPA Consent Decree stands in the bright spotlight as evidence of this national need. We are not alone in neglecting things which we cannot see yet rely upon so much on a daily basis.

Two-thirds of the respondents mentioned highways as needing more funding, and perhaps they do, but we are already spending massive amounts on soon to be out-dated or obsolete highway projects. If we were to limit our thinking to just this element, could it be that in our desires for high gas mileage and the thrill of driving the open road has left us with clogged roadways and no way of funding improvements? I wonder if those who are able to afford the high mileage auto and live the furthest form their work are the same ones demanding more and better highways.

And how do you think that they felt as to the satisfaction with federal government's role in infrastructure development? 93.5% think that federal government's handling of infrastructure is a job which needs improvement (an understatement?) or just plain poor (abysmal may be a better assessment). Just what is it that we want the federal government to do? Is it government’s job to identify the shortcomings in infrastructure and repair them or should they guide the planning phase of facilities repair? Either way this seems to smack of “big brother” control or influence which our fiercely independent residents would balk at when it comes time to pay the tab. I can hear some of my friends now crying out that private industry can do it cheaper and better than government and yet private industry does not do it because the return on investment is not there.

Shorter approval processes and enabling legislation to allow private sector investment were cited as actions which could be taken to aid the necessary repairs and expansion work. I could assume that faster approval times will indicate a much more lax regulatory environment in which the private sector may reap higher profits yet result in a familiar product. The electric grid and the oil/gas pipelines which need the repair are presently in private hands, are they not. Many of them do not have the best track records in safety and environmental concerns, which may be the way that we got into this shape in the first place.

Government, and especially the Federal government, cannot be solely blamed for the pipeline leaks or the refinery fires and outages. The rail industry, despite its governmental regulations, is again growing and expanding, in major part with private dollars and an improving safety record. The electric grid, as robust as it may seem, is still a delicate lacework which is very much vulnerable to the whims of nature and the evil intentions of terrorists both foreign and domestic.

Remember still that this survey was of the high level executives who are concerned with major elements of life as they know it. What about the portion of citizens who are less than privileged and barely above the government's guidelines of poverty or those who are directly in poverty. What infrastructure is required for them to live a better life and how much do these “high level”executives concern themselves with the systems designed strictly for them?

There was a passing reference to multi-modal systems as associated with freight rail, but no mention of public transportation either locally, regionally or nationally. Should there be a 'potential disaster at any turn' as we have seen predicted above, what back-up (or possibly redundant) system will be available to aid in restoring normalcy? The disruption of oil/gas flow can upset just about all of the Interstate travel and the airlines could not mobilize enough to compensate and travel by rail would be non-existent even though it is the most efficient of the three. The destruction of a few major air control centers will hobble the airline industry, more-so internationally than cross-country, with resultant slowdowns of service.

On the local level, a robust public transportation system would save more than enough fuel to weather an extended slow down. Regional rail systems could suffice for the lack of highway and truck capacity for some freight deliveries. Regional and local farming should sustain the populace until new systems can be put in place. An ultra reliable water supply will prove extremely valuable.

93% of the survey respondents believe that the US has no overall infrastructure plan. I know that we have no real local plan. We have a response plan which may work for he short term, but a plan to rebuild our systems should something happen disastrously or they wear out incrementally, I do not believe exists.

I do believe that one should be developed.

Alreco, Without The EPA

Last week brought news of a few more jobs for the Kentucky labor force and maybe got a step or two on the EPA regulations concerning toxic waste materials.

On December 13 the State of Kentucky announced that an Australian company, MHM Metals, would be opening a new plant in Western Kentucky. Normally that wouldn't mean much to me, except that this company processes aluminum waste by-products, and we have some aluminum plants in Ky. MHM has a proprietary process to remove all the toxic waste from the leftovers of recycling aluminum cans.

The top three reasons for location in Ky were listed as:

• 115-acre industrial landholding in Russellville, Kentucky
• Existing buildings on site and property zoning to benefit time frame
• 350,000 tons per annum of salt slag and black dross (the waste product) within an economic radius and rail availability with a high-quality rail operator may further extend this economic distance

Most of us know that R. J. Corman, a high-quality rail operator, runs a train every other day from Berea to Russellville, hauling aluminum ingots from the recycler to the can factory. Anywhere from 20 to 30 cars in a train. What I did not know is that there are two other aluminum producers in Paris (Central Motor Wheel of America) and (Kentucky Smelting Technology, Inc ), both of which have to melt their materials to cast them. There is a third smelting plant in Shelbyville (Ohio Valley Aluminum) which is conveniently right on the rail line and about halfway along the line. Corman's Memphis line division is similarly situated among several aluminum smelters too.

With so many current aluminum plants around and a history of either landfilling or stockpiling this excess material, there should be much work for the new Alreco facility and the three railroads of the region.

All of this without a peep from the EPA or any mention of their “job killing” regulations.

PS, I have not heard Mr McConnell's name spoken in context with this either.

Rail Progress And What It Means To Us

There is an awful lot of talk going on here at the end of the year about what to expect from the railroad industry in 2012. Much of it has to do with further expansion of the freight rail system as we try to come out of this past recession.

Railroad.net is reporting that next year will come with a ton of new jobs and cites the tremendous year that BNSF posted for 2011. Some 700+ jobs in one state alone and 415 of them are new jobs. It looks like we are trying to rebuild some of our decaying infrastructure, though the railroads have been doing a decent job of that in the last few decades.

On the subject of High Speed Rail, at least a couple of the funded projects will begin actual construction in the next year and there is no hope of seeing anything being done close to here.

Inter-modal shipping is picking up in a great way here in America and the railroad are again adding capacity. 

The last five years or so have seen several projects to enlarge tunnels and bridges to allow the bigger double stack trains. Norfolk-Southern is preparing to spend $60.5 million over the next two years, add 48 new employees and possibly create 400 other jobs by the end of 2014. Another expansion project could add 50 more jobs in a second location.

In Virginia, the recent holiday weekend saw the demand for Amtrak exceed the current capacity and talk is going around about the increased need in North Carolina. Even our closest Amtrak route along the Ohio River to Chicago or Washington is looking to add another trainset to the mix.

All of the above is happening in other locales, not in Kentucky. Other states are talking about adding some sort of rail facilities, both freight and passenger types. Little is being talked about in Kentucky.

One of the latest off hand comments came from Nick Nicholson, the president of Keeneland. It looks like he wants a light rail line to the track for two months of racing. Oh, and maybe an extension to the airport. I am not sure where he would like it to run and if it would use new or existing track. Maybe he is expecting R. J. Corman to operate it for him. There are numerous logistical problems to solve in that deal. It can be done but it will be a complex deal.

Speaking of Corman and his property, it appears that the Arena Area Arts and Entertainment group thinks that appropriating a necessary portion of a busy, functioning rail yard for an inter-modal passenger transfer station is an easy task. I think that Mr Corman has said that they are not bringing enough money to the table for that to occur.

Local investing in properties which could bring more rail activity is really at a standstill save for the Smucker's people. I have seen where they have purchased several pieces of property adjacent to the existing JIF plant. This gives them about 27 acres in total and space to expand to about double the production. Whether this includes expanded rail sidings I don't know, but anything is possible.

I also have been watching the Lextran situation with their remodel of their garage building. I have heard that the locals are asking for more restoration than redo and upgrade which could cost more than they have in funding. The old GE lamp plant on the other side of Broadway is empty, has plenty of room for a facility and sit on a rail line. Could this be an impetus for Lextran to think about rail.

Hold on, That is just too much wishful thinking. Lets get back to reality and savor the small gains that we are making.

Rupp Area Task Force Base Data - Flawed?

I would like to thank our friends over at Barefoot and Progressive for putting up the images from the Rupp Area task force report. Some of the renderings are just for show and cannot depict any real form of final idea and others have finally convinced me that the task force may be basing their conclusions on bad data. Lets take a look.

The view of the “freed” Rupp gives a view that could NEVER be seen from the outside as the arena floor would be hidden by the support structure and the attendant side rooms. But we all know that, it is just for show.

The walking distance map from the UK campus indicates just the bare minimum, straight line distance to the campus edge and not the northern residence halls which are a few hundred feet farther. The main campus housing is still at least twice as far as is the Aylesford student housing area. Just a little disingenuous I believe.

I cannot quibble about the scale of the Fayette Mall / Downtown comparison of walking distance, but the downtown image indicates that there is housing located there without showing exactly where. The Park Plaza Apartments and some other downtown housing are strangely missing. The Victorian Square Shoppes, for all the comments about how empty they are, is shown as “big business”comparable to Sears, Macy’s and Dillard’s. Is this really how they think?

I'll skip the “mirroring” concept since it is a very long term thought.

The thought of placing a “Transferia” on an active rail yard, especially one that has seen at least a tripling of activity in the last decade from what it was, leads me to believe that the auto traffic will go through downtown to park so that one can transfer to another mode of transportation. I love the idea of catching a train to Cincinnati or Louisville, but the link to Nashville shows that it goes through Versailles and I know that the line ends there. The Bluegrass Railroad Museum owns the rest, on down to the decrepit Young's High Bridge, and if it did cross the Kentucky River it would go into Frankfort. Apparently there can be no connections to points south on the Norfolk-Southern line.

Then we come the the two images comparing the downtown density of 1907 and today. The basis of the information for 1907 comes from the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps and is quite accurate. It shows the footprints of all the structures,as captured on field surveys. Most of these buildings are two or three usable stories in height and some are just shed style structures. Both Bates and Gang used these same images to look at density, and to good effect. Using footprints alone is one thing but a better measure could be the actual total floorspace of these buildings. Ten to twenty story building replacing the 3-4 floor ones will really increase the density don't you think?

I also realized that many of the buildings in 1907 were fairly good sized livery stables, the parking garages of the day. The map of the current buildings is inconsistent in showing the parking garages, although those with some partial retail/commercial uses are shown in their entirety(one floor of the parking structure beside the 5/3^rd tower and the Victorian Square garage's lower retail). I feel that there is a real slant to the accuracy of information given here.

I doubt that this really skews the base data all that much but if there is this quantity of erroneous data out there, what final recommendation errors are there?

First The Trains, Then The Planes, Then The Roads?

Back in August of 2009, I wrote a piece about a little known Federal program called the Essential Air Service in which the government reimburses major airlines to serve smaller rural communities.  This year it runs to the tune of nearly $200 million and still our air carriers claim that they cannot make any money.  Today, Delta Air Lines announced that it “can no longer afford” to serve 24 of the rural airports that they picked up in the merger with Northwest Airlines.

From what I can gather, it is not all about the corporate decisions to leave folks high and dry but the "style" in which these passengers desire plays a factor.  Everybody, I guess, wishes that their airport be a modern and useful airfield, with the latest in air comfort and speed, but when you cannot fill the existing seats of the propeller type planes - then you will not fill a larger regional JET.  Nor can you fly to the 29 major hubs from just Anyplace, USA and expect to get good slots in the landing pattern.

The Essential Air Service subsidies are slated to expire in 2013 unless Congress decides to extend them but in this current fiscal state I would not hold my breath on that. The current Republican strategy is to cut out anything that does not help corporations but may do some good for the common man.  The highways that we cannot maintain will have to do for these 24 cities and probably a similar number next year - and the year after.

This is also just one decision made by one airline, how many more will be coming in the days ahead?  Deregulation was supposed to free up the airline industry to be responsive to the market demands and to foster more competitive scheduling and pricing.  The Essential Air Service subsidies were to equalize the opportunities for the rural cities which could not run with the big dogs, but also could not stay on the porch.  If things continue as they have in the past five years, even the big dogs may not be running like they have been.

Many of these small cities got a big boost from the railroad systems and some of them owe it all to the railroads. These railroads brought life into a lot of places in the expanding western territories.  For years they were THE way for people to come and go for long distance travel..  The automobile and the airplane helped bring those days to an end, so what is expected when these modes are no longer economically viable?  When the rural areas no longer have air service and the states and federal government can no longer build and maintain the roads.  What will we have then?

Other countries are considering (and building) systems of high speed rail with feeder routes of more moderate speed which connect to the more rural communities there.  Somehow, that doesn't fit in with our concept of a modern world...    yet.

This Weeks Rail Thoughts

I have been kind of quiet on the subject lately, but the things that I have been reading in the past week have brought the regional rail idea more to the fore.

First off, the work that R. J. Corman Railroad is doing along side the Rupp parking lot and the intersection of W. Main St and Oliver Lewis Way is progressing smoothly. They have installed a fairly short (and steep) section of track that branches off of the main line just south of its crossing at Second St. This track then runs up a nearly 6% grade until it levels out parallel to the crest of the embankment which overlooks the rail yard.

This clearly has one sole purpose. To display some of the various rail equipment used by the Central Kentucky Lines portion of Corman rail group. They are also almost ready to place the rail under the new bridge now that the drainage and electrical line placements have been resolved. There is a location for a transformer pad and what I'm told will be a “glass house”. I am supposing that this will look similar to the architecture of the aviation facility in Nicholasville and will be used to protect some railcars (and /or people) should they establish a dinner train style operation. A Corman spokesman has continued to say that the railroad has “no formal plans for an excursion train”but all the construction, both here in Lexington and in Midway are some of the many pieces that “need to come together before an excursion train becomes reality.”

In Midway, if you don't know, the track runs right through the middle of Main St. and leaves little room for a long train to stop without blocking one of two city streets. The right of way for the railroad actually is wide enough for two parallel tracks without eliminating traffic or parking. The railroad is working with the City of Midway in building such a parallel track and doing some streetscape improvements.

Neither of these two track work projects are part of the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant recently awarded for track upgrading on several of the Corman lines in a few states. One more piece of the puzzle was the wye that they re-established near Christianburg and provides a beautiful place in which to turn a train.

Corman has nearly quadrupled the amount of rail traffic on the line to Louisville in the 5 or 6 years that he has controlled it and its soon-to-be-completed upgrading will allow more freight traffic just in time for the price of fuel to make long-haul trucking cost prohibitive. The trucking industry has not made their trucks any more fuel efficient than the auto industry has cars. That said, the idea of a regional commuter rail service to Louisville, though interesting, is made just a little bit harder.

I hear of many commuters who travel from Lexington to Frankfort or Louisville daily who say that they are willing to go by rail, but I am not sure that they have thought it completely through. Many of them have found their efficient route via auto, and many of them avoid the normal rush hour snarls of downtown. If they were to go by rail and the station is downtown, then they are now a part of the traffic that they have so far avoided. There is also an added level of commute time involved which needs to be considered. For all of their talk, we are still at least ten years late in beginning to think about commuter rail service.

On the topic of High Speed Rail, it now seem clear that the Republican majority in the House is set on erasing all gains that the present administration has attempted to make. Without requiring vastly more fuel efficiency in autos and trucks and better alternatives to the fossil fuels we currently use, I think that they are wanting the country to live in the status quo. Other countries are not so conservative about it.

We cannot let the market decide about these things. Consider this. Based on extensive research Airbus committed, back in 2000, to build a massive 4 engined aircraft seating 500-800 passengers. The demand would come from the Asian market and a large part of that from China. Boeing, interestingly enough, came to a eerily similar decision. With the emergence of the Chinese market and the need for large numbers of people to travel between China's major cities and internationally, this looked like a sound decision. Now, 11 years later, one and just one southeast Asian airline has taken delivery of any of these super jumbo jets. That is one A380 out of the five ordered. Boeing has sold none of the passenger models but has orders for the freight versions What, pray tell, is the difference in the past 11 years. China's high speed rail.

This decision was basically an economic one. One 16 car-long 300 km/h train set costs roughly $80 million and seats 1050 while one Airbus A380 costs $360 million and seats 650. You can do the math.

Although the A380 is perhaps the most fuel-efficient large airliner in the sky today on a per-seat/km or seat/mile basis, figures from Airbus and Siemens show that at A380 burns nearly six times as much energy per seat/km as a modern high-speed train. The Chinese will buy from the Western world, but not if what they can build is cheaper. The Chinese have built over 6300 miles of high speed rail line in the past 10 years and the Europeans are continuing to expand their high speed routes while we worry about who will or will not benefit from building it. The answer is definitely the Chinese, they win if the build their own and the win if we don't build ours.

How Do You Feel About Public Transportation?

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is predicting that ridership on America’s public transportation systems will increase should gas prices reach $5 a gallon.

We, here in Lexington, are already seeing a steady increase in Lextran’s monthly tallies and there will be more to come. Of course, we are speaking of just a local city’s bus system and not any type of regional transit or intercity passenger service. It is our lack of planning for and implementation of any regional service that will stifle our ability to enhance the local economy.

APTA President William Millar said in a prepared statement. "We must make significant, long-term investments in public transportation or we will leave our fellow Americans with limited travel options, or in many cases stranded without travel options."

Well, I wonder who those stranded will be. Do you think that it will be the wealthy drivers of those fancy SUV’s or the less well off suburbanite located out off Man o’ War Blvd.? Looking at the Lextran route map, I think that there will be a great deal of those who will need to travel more than a mile or two to work and get groceries.

Better yet will be those who are employed in our ring cities and towns and have to commute to places like Frankfort and Georgetown. You remember, places to where we used to have rail service. Carpooling will become popular again, but will it be enough for everyone?

Lexington government workers will not be immune either. More and more of our firefighters and police personnel live out-of-county and commute in. Quite a few of the city’s other administrative jobs are held by non-residents of the city.

Lextran could, of course, strive to become a regional transit agency more along the lines of TANK and TARC in Northern Ky. and Louisville. Those agencies cover areas outside of their home counties and even cross State lines. This movement would mean serious negotiations and agreements with our surrounding neighbors and an expansion of the existing taxing authority just as a basic funding source. The local Tea Partiers would love that, right?

All of this and not a word about connecting the three major cities of Lexington, Louisville and Cincinnati by passenger rail. I don’t’ think that we will get real serious about that until we get near $7 or $8 gas. It may already be too late to get started. Using the existing freight rails is not a realistic concept, as they will be hauling the goods that are now moving by truck.

So, how good do you feel about how well you will get around when if gas gets to $5 a gallon?

Regional Rail Topic Comes Up Again

I am quite unsure just why this has not made an appearance on the Kentucky.com site yet, but the State Journal in Frankfort reported last week on a proposal for commuter service between Lexington and Louisville. Two trains, each running in three times a day, from Winchester to Louisville with stops in Lexington and Frankfort and (get this) in place by October of 2012.

Wow, with a blockbuster announcement like this one would think that the Herald-Leader would be all over this. Passenger service to the state capital and Louisville three times a day. Estimated cost to Frankfort is a low, low $8 one way. R. J. Corman and CSX would make a bundle on this and add in the stop proposed at Keeneland and there would be nothing stopping these guys.

There is nothing more that I would love to see than passenger rail to both Louisville and Cincinnati on a regular basis, but I see this path being fraught with delays and legal trouble. I think that we are too late in beginning this effort and that the advocate pushing it is dreaming about the eventual cost of start up.

To date route to be used has been known as the “Old Road” to many of Kentucky rail buffs and the majority of it is now leased and used by Corman as a freight route. From what have read of the agreement approved by the Surface Transportation Board, CSX has limited Corman to basically the weekly aluminum ingot trains and sand, cement and some general merchandise runs. The latest addendum, I believe is the ability to haul material for the repair and maintenance of the railroad so that they can facilitate their side of the federal “TIGER” grant of $17,551,028. This project is known as the Appalachian Regional Shortline Project. CSX has not allowed any revenue passenger service over this line and has shown reluctance to even talk about it.

The trackage from Winchester to Anchorage, Ky. Is outside the normally defined Appalachian Region, so I wonder if it is the focus of the grant work as the intent is to refurbish roads in Ky., Tenn. and W. Va.

The person behind this proposal, is the new industrial recruiter in Frankfort. A local position for the city, not a state position. It is noted that he has extensive background in rail planning, both stateside and in Iraq, but there seems to be major gaps in his gathering of fundamental existing conditions.

The article states that a stop is intended to be placed at Keeneland which currently has no rail spur. The closest rail line crosses the Van Meter Rd., about a mile from the back gate of Keeneland and surrounded by horse farms. This line is owned by Corman, but it is the line which goes to Versailles, not Frankfort The “Old Road” crosses S. Yarnallton Rd nearly 5 miles distant and although there used to be a flag stop there, it has long since been transferred to private ownership.

This hindrance will also plague the announced intention of the owner of Greenbrier Resort to run a special trainset from the resort to Keeneland, and back, as part of their strategic partnership to pull in the high rollers of gambling. Theirs may be larger in scope as there is no direct route from Huntington, W. VA to Lexington and they will have to route through Cincinnati. A time consuming trip, nearly 10 hours, as I have recounted here before.

The price tag and time frame are also a question in most folks mind. Those knowledgeable rail fans, from whom I have heard, all question the validity of $40 million to upgrade the track and build stations. Then there is the cost of personnel and operations. Many larger cities which have regional rail, still have to have subsidies which run into the millions, and they have much larger commuting populations. 80 to 90 mile an hour travel between Lexington and Louisville is a possible goal and one that we should have reached long before now. (Wait, we did. Back in the ‘70s when they completed the Interstate.)

80 to 90 mile an hour rail travel between Lexington and Louisville is still a ways off.

The Questions Not Asked

I have not been able to attend any of the Mayoral forums as of yet but I have kept up with how they went through all the reporting and the Twitter logs available. It seems that I and Steve Austin are in agreement in the notion that - so far all the questions have been about things that are already water under the bridge.

We are going to be selecting a person the lead the city into the future, not worry about how it should have been handled last time. The problems looming on the horizon are much more worrisome than whether there is full disclosure about some private business project in downtown. What I want to know is- How are we going to handle thing like "Peak Oil", climate change, or some of the other situations coming down the road but not yet fully manifest. These are questions that our young, "creative class", social media savvy bloggers and reporters have avoided completely.

How will our future leaders solve the dilemma of the residents of our outer suburbs when the price of fuel is out of reach to the common person? Our edge subdivisions are not being served by mass transit and the idea of regional transit is not on the radar. How do they plan on feeding the masses when transportation costs could be roughly 1/2 the going price in the stores? Where will the tipping point be when the agricultural land is more valuable for food crops than equine crops? That may be real value of the PDR program.

I have seen how some of these "progressives" have brought in officials from other cities ,where there has been some modicum of success, to explain their methods. The situations and conditions are never the same in all cities, even during good economic times, so the results will always be different. It is the "Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle" in action. Those same officials, operating in differing cities, would not have fared as well as a general rule.

Our city leaders of the past few decades(especially from the '70s) have failed to secure the infrastructure and facilities to ensure the basic necessities of life; sufficient potable water, locally generated energy or alternative power sources, locally available food sufficient for all residents... and we have known that the day is coming. As we have seen with RWE and now E.on, the divestiture of the global corporations controlling utilities (and probably soon with food) is coming.

Where will these new leaders take us in this "Great Reset"? That is the line of questioning that should be taking place. Had I sent them in by social media, they would not have been asked and had I been there in person, I would have been considered as "off the wall" as Skip Horine.

Lets Walk Before We Run

Lexington, as well as the rest of America, still has a problem coming to grips with the idea of mass transit. We want to run before we have relearned the simple steps of walking the mass transit walk.

America began dismantling their urban rail (streetcars and interurban/regional rail) facilities right at the beginnings of a time when we needed them most, the middle of the Great Depression. Then, right after the Second World War, while Europe was rebuilding their rail infrastructure with a lot of Allied help, we started to remove our intercity passenger rail. The concept of the Interstate Highway System would soon allow interstate trucking to grow while the railroad unions, in an effort to preserve jobs, did a number on the freight rail service. Our eggs were just about all in one basket.

Europe on the other hand, took our assistance and rebuilt their streetcars, their intercity rail and by the "60s began to think of a higher speed rail system. Japan made similar decisions with similar results. In other words, they took the simple steps of fixing a broken body, learned to walk again, then running and then took off racing. A story not too different from that of Red Pollard and Seabiscuit.

The simple fact is that both Europe and Japan (and now China and others) have discovered that the answer of mass transit is in a balanced approach of all modes interconnecting to become one system. Only a handful of East Coast American cities have tried to follow this approach and most of them are facing rising fares due to failing to complete all possible connections. The Federal agency charged with assisting this complete approach has, for the past 50 years, done a poor job.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, which one would assume, should coordinate all the transportation facilities across the nation(pedestrian, bicycle, auto, trucking, rail and aviation) into one system, funded at the State and local level and by private industry, instead has become the primary provider of funding amid massive political wrangling. It used to be, in the days of the "rugged individualist", that roads and railroads were built by the people who wanted to get somewhere. Now these "creative class" folks are waiting for someone else to build their roads for them. The idea of going the route of private toll roads (a free market system) is abhorrent to most people now that freeways and the lure of the open road has been let out of the bag.

Most people in America, outside of the larger east coast cities, can not remember the days of regularly scheduled passenger train traffic of more than twice a day. I can recall the two daily trips of the George Washington, C&O's remaining service to Lexington, from about 1963 until the creation of Amtrak. One in the morning and one in the evening, with never more than 3 cars and barely any one boarding here in town. There used to be much more traffic than that and there can be again.

I am not here to downplay the need for High Speed Rail but I do want to emphasize that HSR alone is not the cure-all of our transit woes. Let us take the baby steps of local transit and regional service before we cry about not getting a HSR connection

When Will We Try To Be Better?

One of the things that has perturbed me about the City-Data forum that I frequent is the propensity of the "local experts" to reply to posts with answers to questions that weren't asked. One of the most common ploys is to respond to queries about things to do in Lexington ,other that the usual college pub crawls and night spots, with a typical "Head to Louisville" or "Go to Cincinnati". Those two cities are always touted as being much better than Lexington and the so called "experts" have usually come from somewhere else (and may have moved back).

But everything in larger cities is not always better.

The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area does have a lot going for it yet even they seem to fail to put all the pieces together. Cincinnati has resoundingly endorsed a streetcar line. It will run from downtown, through the Over-the-Rhine district and near the University of Cincinnati and then back downtown. Cincinnatians have wrangled federal funds to plan a Cross-Ohio high speed rail line as part of the Mid -West Initiative. And... there is nothing in between. No commuter rail, no regional rail, none of the other pieces that will make it all work, no seamless mass transportation across the area.

Louisville is not any farther along. Their airport is more centrally located and can be accessed by transit, but a city bus is no way to get to and from an airport. Commuter rail and regional rail is brought up on occasion but, other than trying to use existing rail facilities, nothing comes of it. And, a streetcar, why I think that Kentuckians would rather walk than go back to streetcars.

These progressive communities have done little or no preparation work for the coming energy reset, where relying on a fossil fueled vehicle will be a crap shoot. I hear you say it-"We will be using electric autos, soon"- but it won't be soon enough to do any good.

For everyone to switch to an electric auto will be like everybody buying a $50 thousand car in the next couple of years, if they would be available. I don't see that happening any time soon.

Charging your car will take all night when utility rates are low(called off-peak rates), but if everybody is charging at that time then it becomes a peak generating and consumption time. There will be no off-peak rates. Charging your car while it is parked during the day(while at work presumably) will bring its own set of difficulties and extra parking fees. There will be no such thing as free parking.

Commute distances of more than 40 miles will be a thing of the past. Even with an auxiliary generating engine, a commute which would use both the electric charge and fossil fuel is counter productive. People will live closer to where they work and higher densities will mean even higher costs for the parking of a vehicle.

The larger, more progressive cities of Cincinnati and Louisville do have a lot going on for the average young professional-the so called "creative class"- yet the don't seem to be preparing for those that this class will need just a few years down the road. And I don't see Lexington doing any better.

Lexington should try to be less like theses progressive cities and more like a city that wants to be better than they are. When are going to begin?

America's Idea Of High Speed Rail

HNTB is a well known, employee owned, architecture and engineering consulting firm specializing in sports venues but also working in road/bridges, aviation and light rail. They also prepare and distribute, on line, a publication called THINK, and in that preparation conduct many opinion surveys. One of their latest concerns High Speed Rail.

New America THINKS survey results from HNTB Corporation illustrate transit and passenger rail remain top of mind after the Obama administration’s $8 billion high-speed rail grant announcement last month.

Nearly nine in ten (88 percent) Americans are currently open to high-speed rail travel for long-distance travel within the United States. While this is a strong majority, that support is down slightly from the 94 percent America THINKS recorded in March 2009.

This is much higher than I thought it would be and if I were a pessimist, I would swear that these were rosy liberal government projections. Don't get me wrong, I have been pushing (and dreaming of) High Speed Rail since the '70s, unfortunately, the federal money that could have (or should have) been spent on it was mandated for highways.

While general interest may have slowed, there’s still a great deal of support for passenger rail enhancements overall. More than four in five (83 percent) Americans agree public transit and high-speed rail infrastructure should receive a larger share of federal funding than they do now.

I guess my next question would have to be, Does congress know this? Then I realize that Congress doesn't care. There are no lobbyists from major corporations beating down their doors, throwing cash at them for their votes. Major corporations, the big three automakers and the large energy companies all realize that their fortunes could turn on a decision to increase mass transit opportunities in America.

Our American automakers at one time made what appeared to be obscene profits but in recent years have lost billions. Our trucking industry, at one point appeared to be choking the life out of America's freight railroads. The large oil companies are still raking in huge profits due to the world's unquenchable thirst for oil despite a demonstrated decline in availability. Even if you don't suscribe to the concept of Peak Oil, it is becoming clear that the way that thing were were simply not sustainable.

The American airline industry is imploding from similar problems of sustainability. The terror threats have only exacerbated the continuing delays encountered by the traveling public. An aging air control system and declining on-time performance figures posted by the airlines are making some people think twice about flying as a travel option. With a possible lack of available fuel (or at least much more expensive fuel) and few viable alternatives, airlines may be a dying industry except for coast-to-coast or overseas flights.

This may coincide with another study requested by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in California about the effects of High Speed Rail on the Bay Area. SH&E, a Virginia-based aviation firm has concluded that the three Bay Area airport could see a loss of 6 million passengers by 2035. That assumes that the system would be operational by 2020 AND that the airline industry will still be operating.

It is well documented that in Europe(particularly Spain) and China that the bullet trains have seriously eroded the airline industry's clientele. In America, even Amtrak's Acela service- a limited medium speed service- from New York to Washington has garnered approximately 62% of the traveling public between those two cities.

Lexington, of course, has been left out of any consideration for High Speed Rail, medium speed rail, commuter rail, regional rail or any other mode of mass transit in, around, or beyond the limited bus service that we have.

I tell you, we are going to have to start really thinking locally and begin to do some of these things for ourselves. Congress will only do it for those corporations who offer leverage. The idea of "government of the people, by the people and for the people" began to die shortly after Abraham Lincoln declared that it "should not perish from this earth". If we want it back, then we will have to take it back.

I wish us luck.

TIGER, Stimulus and The Corman Group

The R. J. Corman Railroad Group, one of my favorite rail companies, is on the receiving end of some of the TIGER funds of the stimulus package. Funds that will rehabilitate some of the aging trackage that they lease from CSX, trackage that CSX let deteriorate as they lost freight market share to the trucking industry. Yes, it is the same trucking industry that has been propped up by the highway subsidies since the early '50s.

The funds will be used to rehabilitate roadbed and ties on the three short lines, the Central Kentucky line, the Bardstown line and the Memphis line. The amount of work will require approximately 100 additional positions and be spread from Winchester to Louisville and Bowling Green to Tennessee.

These rail infrastructure upgrades will allow more freight to be hauled at a cheaper cost in terms of our carbon footprint if not actual drayage fees. Such upgrades may also allow the possibility of regional passenger rail but I think that it is too soon to tell on that one. Some other recent upgrades, that did not involve federal dollars, included the tunnel expansion in Frankfort and several new sidings along the route to Louisville in anticipation of some type of increased rail movements and excursions.

If my hunch is right, this may not be the only contact that the Corman Group has with stimulus money. Another big award was for The National Gateway Rail Corridor on the CSX System in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio that totals $98 million. This project involves enlarging tunnels to allow containerized freight moving in double-stack trains to be able to shave off about 200 miles and up to a day’s transit time between the East Coast and the Midwest. Coincidentally, Corman has recently completed three good sized tunnels for the Norfolk-Southern Heartland Corridor project. The National Gateway Corridor also feeds several of Corman's short lines in Pennsylvania. It would only be logical for Corman to pick up some of this work.

How all of this ties into the plans of Warren Buffet and the BNSF or the CN expansion plans along the former Illinois Central corridor, I can only speculate but I would love to be proven right on some of my earlier hunches.

Can We Get Started Sometime Soon?

Some Americans are so impatient. Nothing can come soon enough for them. We now have a federal administration which is keen on the advancement of mass transit and high speed rail and now we can't wait for such a system to arrive in all the small towns across the country. Lexington is one of those cities.

Lexington and Kentucky have not been in the forefront of innovation or execution of transportation by any stretch of the imagination. We have had to wait our turn for the latest thing to come down the pike.

Lexington was not the first city in Kentucky to have rail travel. This is probably due to the lack of population that would require such transportation and the lack of funds necessary to maintain a railroad. Many other cities were connected by rail before Lexington finally got in on the act. We are in similar shape today in relation to high speed rail and, by most accounts, even any type of regional rail. Mass transit is beneath most of the supposed well to do in Lexington, whether it be bus or rail.

The local proponents of mass transit, currently ours is a less than stellar bus system, can only dream of light rail and/or a regional commuter system. There are just not enough riders interested in such a scheme. Those of us who would propose such an idea are considered a radical fringe by some and crazy by others. Yet there are a growing number of us, right here in Lexington.

Like I said, we now have an administration unlike any that we have seen in the past 20 years. A Transportation Secretary who is trying to expand Amtrak and not kill it. A President who is not nominating board members that wish to shut down the only passenger rail left in America. A Vice President who actually regularly rides mass transit, when possible(and not to a photo op). We have a Senatorial Candidate with a regional rail plan. We even have a Federal commitment of funding for more transit projects over the next several years.

So why is all the national focus on High Speed Rail? Why are there calls for stylish terminal facilities to enhance the riders experience. Shouldn't America get to a brisk walk before we learn to run. We are starting to act like the socialite who dresses in the fanciest warm-up gear, just so that they can be seen being chauffeured to and from the gym without actually working out. Kentucky just needs to get going on pushing some sort of passenger rail.

I have touted Dr. Mongiardo's rail plan here before and I had hoped that he would come and explain it further. I now am told that he did come to Lexington, to a conference of Transportation professionals, back in January. I wish that he had made his presentation to a general audience rather than to an assembly which appears to most of us as being drug toward the future instead of leading the charge. I think that he would have found a much more receptive crowd to his plan, from people who want to use it instead of make a career off of it, from people who want to get somewhere on it instead of get rich off of it.

I don't want to sound impatient, but I do want to get started. Just some sort of a start.

Happy New Year?

Happy New Year

The oughts are over and we are entering the last year of the decade. Despite what the TV announcers have been saying, this is NOT the beginning of a new decade. A decade is a ten year period and the year 2000 was the last year of the 20th century.

Now, what are we going to do to cap off this wild and crazy first decade of the new century?

We started off riding hell bent into the future and riding a wave of economic boom times that some said was unsustainable, and we seem surprised that they weren't. We, as a city, continued to put off doing some of those inconvenient tasks and some of those promised enhancements, just because they got in the way of someones personal gain. Don't we hate it when the buzzards come home to roost.

I was asked last week, during a holiday party, my opinion on the upcoming election, how will it play out with Newberry and Gray. My comment was, that it will be so ugly between the two Jims, that we may just see Ms. Issac again, but that in any case Lexington will LOSE. My sister said that she thought that it looked bad for Newberry, given the strong support for CentrePointe and its troubles.

I reminded her, that as Mayor, when a private property owner proposed a $250 million project for a city, a project that was intended to bring jobs and investment, that I would expect that Mayor to be supportive of the development regardless of any personal preference toward the project. I would expect Mr. Gray to do the same, were he to be in the position of mayor someday. Any development just for the sake of development is not always a wise choice, but driving away development and hoping for something better, especially during a dearth of any economic progress downtown, is even less wise.

She asked about the loss of property tax revenue on the demolished block and the loss of jobs in the area. Again I pointed out that all the jobs had been relocated within a few blocks of the original location(well, maybe not the Buster's jobs but they are doing much better where they are now) and that the property taxes will now be paid on a value which is 5 times the assessment
of last year, and that will only go up.

We both agreed that Mr. Gray has not brought forth any economic development proposals of his own despite his being touted as a planning and development visionary and working with the Downtown Development group and the Infill/Redevelopment Committee. He does seem to jump on the bandwagons for various proposals, some for and some against, depending on the number of activists available as voters. I am very interested to see just what Mr. Gray does endorse in the coming campaign.

Mr. Newberry's "Horses, High Tech & Health Care" platform of four years ago has shown very little High Tech and absolutely no comments in the national debate on health care reform. Horses, in the form of the World Equestrian Games has consumed massive resources and discussion for what many consider a "ho-hum" event. Very similar to the NCAA Final Fours of the mid '80s ( men's and women's), something that we spent hours preparing for and then they were gone, and so very few of us have something to show for it.

The horse industry, which we proudly claim as our "signature" industry, is showing signs of fleeing to greener pastures. Is there more that we can do to salvage what so many of us enjoy yet so few of us can attribute any major benefit to our own well being? Will expanded gambling be a factor in salvation or another nail in the horse industry's coffin.

What I don't see coming out of this election is, any solutions for the real problems on the horizon. Subjects such as Peak Oil, the coming economic reset of priorities, the need for a relocalization of food production or the loss of a "signature" industry(something that other cities have and will continue to deal with). These are just as real as Global Warming and Climate Change. I don't see the local government working with others in a regional transportation network, or pressuring the state to advance some sort of statewide passenger rail system, because as I have said before, I don't see the electrical grid being able to withstand electric autos nor the general population being able to afford them. The mobility of people, goods and services may well be compromised if we do not plan for the coming situations.

The Council and Mayoral elections will not be the only things in transition in the coming year but they will be the major things. And I will be looking out for some of my other favorite subjects along the way.

Look Local, But Not Too Local

I guess this goes to show that you just can"t find everything locally. A friend alerted me to this tidbit of information.

Rep. Ben Chandler, D-6th District, designated $2.5 million for foreign language programs in the Fayette County schools.

He also got $500,000 for the construction of a trail system in the Lexington area; $334,000 for the construction of a facility in Frankfort that will centralize all administrative services of the Kentucky National Guard; $325,000 for a domestic violence program in Lexington; and $300,000 for a study of mass transit alternatives in Central Kentucky, including light rail.

It comes from the Louisville Courier-Journal and was posted sometime Sunday evening after the final Senate vote. It was buried, way down at the bottom, but I would expect that from the Louisville paper. I cannot find it anywhere on the Lexington Herald Leader site nor do I remember seeing it in print. Not in print anywhere in Lexington.

Our 6th District Congressman, Ben Chandler has come through for us again in this funding bill.

• $2.5 million for the foreign language programs in Lexington.

This is good. I can support this, and not just because my guys went through the Spanish program at Maxwell. I think that we are going to need to understand our foreign visitors while we still have them. It may also help with some of our more recent additions.

• $.5 million to build a trail system

Not just any trail system, a multi-use system for walkers and cyclists. A system that connects our neighborhoods to the parks and schools nearby. If we can't get our developers to make the connections, then I'm glad that the Federal Government will help.

• $.3+ million for a building to house the administrative services of the Kentucky National Guard.

We need to help out the guys in uniform if we are going to use them so much. GO GUARD.

• $.3 million for a domestic violence program.

This is a violence PREVENTION program I am sure. We really don't need any more violence than we currently have.

Then, here we go, right here at the bottom. One of my passions(you know this if you have read me any time at all) is some money for transit.

• $300,000 for the study of Central Kentucky mass transit. INCLUDING LIGHT RAIL
  

Right off the bat, I am not sure that $300,000 would do that much of a study. Then I wonder, who is going to do the study? Lextran? Oh I hope not, they don't cover enough of Central Kentucky. The MPO? I don't think so, I have not seen that much interest in regional transit or light rail from them. Bluegrass ADD? Tell me that is not right. We might as well give the money back for the kind of study that we would receive there.

Can we get Rep.Chandler, Gov. Brashear and Dr Dan Mongiardo together and make sure that this get done right? And maybe we can get a little press about it this time.