Dukakis Proposes High-Speed Train as Answer to U.S. Transportation Woes

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Former presidential candidate Michael Dukakis called for a dramatic increase in federal funding for rail transit during an appearance Friday at UC Berkeley's Sibley Auditorium, reports the Daily Californian. Dukakis, acting head of embattled Amtrak, proposed high-speed rail as a solution for both Amtrak's troubles and the nation's traffic and airport overcrowding. "People are going nuts on our highways and airports," he said. According to Dukakis, high-speed rail trains running 125 to 150 mph would operate successfully between many of the nation's cities, including locations in the Bay Area. "Part of our California plan is 16 trains a day from San Jose to Sacramento in no more than two hours 20 minutes," he said. "Now that's not the T.G.V. or the Japanese bullet, but it's a hell of a lot better than what you got." BART director Tom Radulovich, who was in attendance, said the plan would only work if it included transit connections to San Francisco. "It's hard to justify a high-speed link between San Jose and Oakland if you don't link it to San Francisco," he said. "You'd want BART to complement it." A new transbay tube would be required to carry high-speed trains, he added. Although he called for expansion, Dukakis congratulated California on its commitment to rail transit. "In this state we get more support than any other state, especially under (Gov.) Gray Davis," he said. California is researching a high-speed railway that would cover the state, and Davis allocated $8.46 million for a related environmental study in his 2002 budget proposal. Unlike Dukakis, Professor of City and Regional Planning Martin Wachs did not see Davis's funding as a good sign for high-speed rail in California. "Those little bits of funding indicate that the governor is not really committed to high-speed rail," Wachs said. Wachs also said he does not think the benefits of Dukakis's railway outweigh the costs. "I don't see an opportunity for high-speed rail that would justify the subsidy that it would require," he said. He added that UC Berkeley studies have found the case for high-speed rail to be "pretty weak." Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Professor Adib Kanafani, who conducted one such study, concluded that high-speed rail only makes sense in California along a few corridors, such as a straight shot between Sacramento and the Bay Area. Even that line would only work with an expansion of BART and Caltrain, he said. "A good rail distribution system (such as BART) is more important than high-speed rail," he said. In his speech, Dukakis listed several other areas outside California that could support high-speed trains, including the nine Midwestern states. During his speech, Dukakis repeatedly called for the federal government to direct 5 percent of its transit budget to railway expansion. "That's not an increase in taxes, just an earmark," he said. Dukakis addressed a 1997 law passed by Congress stipulating that Amtrak's federal subsidy would end by December 2002. But the train system has yet to generate enough revenue to cover its costs. He said high-speed lines could generate enough profit to achieve Amtrak's self-sufficiency. "But there's no way (Amtrak and other rail systems) can become profitable unless we commit steady capital," he said. On Thursday, an advisory panel presented Congress with a plan to split Amtrak into three agencies and open passenger rail to private competition, an act Dukakis said was unnecessary.