High Speed Rail Affirmative 1ac – Energy Module (1/4)
Economy – Internal Link: Competitiveness
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Economy – Internal Link: CompetitivenessHigh-Speed rails are essential to economic competitiveness Diridon ’12 [Rod Diridon is senior executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute. To comment, go to sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1, "U.S. must fund transportation infrastructure”, Updated 01:12 p.m., Friday, June 22, 2012, http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/U-S-must-fund-transportation-infrastructure-3653903.php] The country that moves product to the market and people to work most efficiently wins the international geo-economic competition. That's never been more threateningly true than now, as the aging and incomplete U.S. transportation systems fall into decline with dwindling hope of recovery. Major sections of President Dwight Eisenhower's interstate highway system, especially interchanges and lane widening, are incomplete. The overall system is poorly maintained, including bridges and pavement, except for those supported by our San Francisco Bay Area's bridge tolls, which have been increased recently. Our mass transit systems are well planned but incomplete. New, more efficient and sustainable modes, such as high-speed rail and automated guide-way transit that already support the rest of the world's economies, are not available in the United States. The 18.4 cent-per-gallon federal gas tax, the traditional funding source for transportation, was increased last in 1993 and is woefully inadequate to meet current and future needs. Remember, fuel prices are up drastically, which results in fewer miles being driven and stimulates the development of more efficient cars. All of that leads to less fuel purchased. The gas tax is per gallon - fewer miles and better economy equals fewer gallons consumed, which equals less fuel taxes collected for four out of the past five years. Yet our aging and obsolete infrastructure needs more funding, not less. Congress has been unable to find the funding or the votes to reauthorize the essential national surface transportation act. Economy – Internal Link: JobsHigh Speed Rail solves- creates over 400,000 permanent jobs in one state alone, fast trains increase ridership, and the trains end up paying for themselves. Clendaniel no date (Morgan, “Forget the Environment, High-Speed Rail is Good for Business,” editor of Co.Exist, http://www.fastcoexist.com/1677878/forget-the-environment-high-speed-rail-is-good-for-business) Since the elections in November, newly elected Republican governors have been falling over themselves to return federal funding earmarked for high-speed rail. Their rationale is that once the rail project is built, the state will be the one bearing the operating cost while the trains lose money because no one is riding them. A new report says that this strategy is going to backfire: High-speed rail can be a huge driver of jobs and economic growth, and the government has already committed to at least $10 billion worth of spending, with plans for tens of billions more in the coming years. The report, "The Case for Business Investment in High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail" (PDF) by the American Public Transportation Association finds that in addition to the obvious, but temporary, construction jobs, the benefits ripple out throughout an economy. Most importantly, for each $1 billion spent on train construction, 24,000 permanent jobs are created. That's a mere $41,667 per job, which looks downright cheap when you're staring down 9% unemployment. The California High-Speed Rail Authority estimates that building a high-speed rail link between L.A. and San Francisco would result in 600,000 construction jobs and 450,000 permanent new jobs. There are currently 2.2 million unemployed people in the state; high-speed rail would halve its unemployment rate. Here is how high-speed rail would affect some major American cities, to the tune of billions of dollars in economic growth and new wages: The concern with high-speed rail, as explained by the governors in states like Wisconsin and Florida is that no one will ride it. And while rail ridership is at an all-time high, it's a fair worry. Amtrak has trouble making ends meet. But what they're forgetting is that people don't want to ride trains not because they hate trains, but because trains aren't that fast. If you make the trains faster, people will ride them. Here is what happened in Europe when they added high-speed rail: Paris-Brussels (All travel modes) 24% Percent Trips on Trains before High-Speed Rail 50% Percent Trips on Trains Now 108% Percent Change in Train Shares of Trips Madrid-Seville (Trains and Air Travel Only) 33% Percent Trips on Trains before High-Speed Rail 84% Percent Trips on Trains Now 155% Percent Change in Train Shares of Trips Shocking, yes, but if you spend the money to make the train more convenient, more people will pay to ride on it! And its not as if we really need to push that hard. In the crowded Northeast Corridor (the perfect place for high-speed rail), 62% of the people choosing between taking a train or a plane from Washington, D.C. to New York pick the train, as do 47% of Boston to New York travelers. And the people who choose the train instead of driving would decrease wear on the roads, resulting in $270 billion in road repair savings by 2050. That pays for the trains right there. And lest we forget the environmental benefits, remember, trains are the most efficient mode of passenger movement, especially high-speed ones: Better for the bottom line, better for the environment. Plus, you're not stuck in traffic and your friendly TSA agent doesn't have to touch you in your special place before you get on. HSR is competitive with highway and air travel, and produces 20k jobs for every $1 billion invested. Eric C. Peterson, January 2012 [Consultant for American Public Transportation Association, Peterson has held significant leadership roles on Capitol Hill, with national and regional transportation associations, and within the U.S. Department of Transportation where he was the first Deputy Administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration. He currently serves as a Research Associate for the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University. “An Inventory of the Criticisms of High Speed Rail with Suggested Responses and Counterpoints,” http://www.apta.com/resources/reportsandpublications/Documents/HSR-Defense.pdf] It is strange that these critics don’t seem to have the ability (or perhaps willingness) to see the potential of the future and the realization that just because conditions are as they are today they can’t be better or different tomorrow. If Henry Ford had lacked this same ability, we might all still be riding in horses and buggies. Can you imagine the mobility, air quality, and public sanitation issues we’d face? By the administration’s own words, high-speed rail is not ubiquitous high-speed rail, but rather an initiative that offers the opportunity to rebuild America’s passenger rail network in 13 corridors that would link economic centers at a distance of 100 to 600 miles; and do it in a way that would be sustainable and competitive with highway and air travel. This would occur against a background of increasingly over- congested highways and airways for which there is little relief except to divert a portion of their burden to other viable modes of transportation. How in anyone’s mind could that be considered wasteful spending, especially when it is intended that the private sector will be an active partner in pursuit of this mission, not to mention that this is exactly what is needed in order to enable our nation to regain its edge as a dynamic and successful economic power? As it is, the passenger rail improvement initiative is indeed a long-term infrastructure development initiative conceived to be as massive as the construction of the nation’s interstate highway system. That initiative took over 50 years to complete, the equivalent of at least two generations of workers engaged in highly skilled infrastructure design and construction. Labor experts estimate that for every $1 billion spent on conventional and high-speed passenger rail development, 20,000 jobs are supported. With $13 billion already appropriated and $53 billion proposed over the next six years, that translates into 1.3 million jobs at a time when jobs creation is exactly what our economy needs. 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