LaHood Calls for Midwest "Rail Czar"

By Kevin Robinson in News on May 19, 2009 4:20PM

Speaking at a luncheon at Chicago's Union League Club, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood reiterated his call for a Midwest "high-speed rail czar". The idea, which LaHood proposed to Governor Pat Quinn last month, would entail "somebody, maybe a retired rail person, who gets up every day, and the only thing that person thinks about is developing the high-speed rail corridor in the Midwest," LaHood said. "That's the way it is going to happen." According to LaHood, a joint program administrator would work with states in the region to figure out how to use portions of the $8 billion allocated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to build a high-speed rail network in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Last month President Obama unveiled his plans for a series of high-speed rail networks around the nation, including a nine-state, 3,000 mile Midwestern network that features Chicago as a hub. A czar "is the way you really can coordinate all the states, someone who gets up every morning and all they think about his how to get high-speed rail," LaHood said.

LaHood suggested that a unified proposal by states in the region would improve the region's chances of winning funding for the project, which will be competitively awarded later this year. While LaHood said he wouldn't prejudge the merits of anyone proposal before reviewing them all, he indicated that the Obama administration would like to have a single point of contact on the issue for the region.