High Speed Rail through Lakewood, part three of three

This is part three - and final - of a series on the subject of High Speed Rail (HSR).  There are three questions this series seeks to address:

1.  - How acceptably does HSR alleviate concerns of safety - trains vs. pedestrians, and trains vs. traffic?

2.  - How accurately does HSR present its information?  In other words, is there information that HSR makes available for public consumption, while pursuing an under-the-radar purpose reflecting an ulterior motivation?

3.  Transportation - How affectively does HSR address the needs of transportation?

As you read this there remains but a few weeks left (December 11, 2011 deadline) in the effort to gather 5,500 signatures of Lakewood registered voters to put before the people the opportunity to vote on the most significant transportation issue our city will likely ever face.  "Remember," stated the 2011 Informed Voter Guide issued by the Freedom Foundation, "It's your government, it's your money, it's your future."  To help with the effort you can download the petition here.

Part III

"Saving the polar bears is nice, but more highway capacity is an economic imperative, for individuals and businesses alike." - Chris Vance, "My way is the highway, and so it is for most people."

If safety is the easily identified elephant in the room; and the motivation behind the project is like the truth hidden behind the trees of the jungle - that truth now known to be the selling (and selling-out) of the American public: grabbing the market from other providers while tanking the economy in a need-not-substantiated gambit; then what shall we call forging blindly ahead into the forest while leaving our life-line - the third and final reason - behind?

I-5 is our transportation and economic life-line.  The 4.6 mile stretch of I-5 from Lakewood to DuPont is already at maximum capacity of 60,000 cars per day.  In 10 years it's estimated it'll reach 72,000, 20% over capacity.  The Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) says it'll have no funding for 20 years to address the problem by which time it'll be maybe 50% over capacity.  When economic conditions improve more people will drive.  Take into account that "an estimated 1.4 million patients visit Madigan military hospital each year, half using the interchange (at I-5 and Berkeley); add 14,000 soldiers and dependents to arrive by 2016 at the Washington's largest military installation that lies on the most heavily used transportation arterial in the state; subtract all money on WSDOT's part to address the situation - then Amtrak as a solution had better be just that.

Amtrak is "a massive failure"

This past May 7, Amtrak celebrated 40 years.  On its anniversary, Amtrak was called "a massive failure" by its very own founder.  Here is an excerpt from The Blaze and it is included here because it addresses the third question: How affectively does Amtrak address the needs of transportation?

"This week kicks off the 40th Anniversary of the money-sucking, inefficient, outmoded national rail system we call Amtrak . . . . Amtrak loses bucketloads of money every day.  The national rail system operates in the red, generating huge losses and has done so each and every year of its existence . . . putting the overall tab for this antiquated, bloated and inefficient system around $50 billion dollars of taxpayer money . . . .  Most private transportation companies have been forced to apply real world solutions in these difficult economic times, yet Amtrak rolls on, acting as if they were exempt from the problem . . . . four decades off massive money losses to serve the transportation needs of less than 2% of the country."

The express-way better suited for an espresso

City of Lakewood Communications Director Jeff Brewster wrote, "WSDOT understands though will not concede the return on the investment for the Point Defiance Bypass project is negligible compared to much more pressing infrastructure needs throughout the state.  Traffic congestion through Lakewood and Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM) on I-5 is just one example."  Senator Mike Carrell said, "It makes zero practical sense to reduce the commute time of rail passengers six minutes (from 3 hours, 32 minutes to 3 hours, 26 minutes - and eventually 3 hours, 20 minutes by 2017) from Seattle to Portland while leaving tens of thousands of people languishing on the freeway just a few yards away."

Public Affairs Consultant Chris Vance wrote in the October 2007 issue of Crosscut.com - a northwest news publication out of Seatte, "Our economy largely depends on big trucks being able to move stuff in and out of the ports of Seattle and Tacoma quickly, easily and predictably.  If we do nothing and allow freeway congestion to get worse and worse, we will be irresponsibly forfeiting jobs as our trucks sit in traffic backups."

Jan Teague, President/CEO of the Washington Retail Association wrote in her May 11, 2011 column, "Our state wants to remain competitive and grow in the business of exporting products around the world.  But to do that, Washington State will have to secure enough funding to maintain and improve its transportation systems."  Given that traffic congestion and related logistics "add $8 billion a year to the cost of goods," according to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Stewart - keynote speaker at the transportation conference attended by Teague and hosted by the Washington Policy Center - I-5's condition and congestion bears more resemblance to the constriction and strangulation of an ever-tightening noose than a viable economic life-line - one Amtrak does comparatively little to resolve.

In an article entitled "End of the line for taxpayers subsidies," scholars and analysts conducting independent, nonpartisan research at The CATO Institute, a national public policy research organization, revealed that "Amtrak has virtually no impact on reducing traffic congestion, pollution, or energy use.  Even a doubling of train ridership would reduce engergy consuption and traffic congestion by less than 0.1 %.  It is estimated that Amtrak removes barely 2 percent of lane capacity - considerably below the threshold required for construction of a new lane."

That new lane would figure to be higher on the list of priorities for the trucking industry than a couple of new rails for train tourists.  Washington Trucking Association Vice President Jim Tutton basically echoed Secretary Peters who said "the key to economic growth will hinge on investing in the decaying U.S. transportation system that is now over 50 years old."

"Deliveries in Washington are taking longer and longer," Teague reported Tutton as saying.  "This creates the need for more warehousing locations so that trucking companies can make timely deliveries to customers.  These additional costs are being passed on to customers."  If the state "wants to be a key player in the country in exporting products around the world, we can't do that if our transportation system doesn't save truckers time (time is money) to transport across the state," Teague concluded.

Even in providing the most recent $5.7 million to improve the Interstate 5 interchange serving Madigan Army Medical Center, the Department of Defense admitted it's a short-term fix.  "A study released a year ago recommended reconstructing Berkeley and three other antiquated Lewis-McChord interchanges to reduce I-5 congestion.  The entire project could take 10 to 15 years to complete.  The Berkeley interchange project alone is estimate to cost $22 million to $72 million, the study said."

Meanhile, escaping unscathed from the economic devastation, let alone the quagmire of transportation, HSR leaves the train station, with the stretch of rail from Tacoma to DuPont paralleling I-5 estimated to cost upwards of $191 million.  And Lakewood's is but one of 15 rail projects in the State, the total of all 15 approaching $750 million.

As one of our key economic life-lines, I-5 - infamous as it is for its current congestion - to leave the problems unaddressed in a more timely manner than that proposed by WSDOT is to irresponsibly forfeit our ability to compete in the market place of the transfer of products - and the materials to make them - to and from the suppliers and manufacturers that depend upon them.

As time is running out on the state's ability to economically compete, so too are the days numbered (December 11, 2011) to do that which only lies in our hands to accomplish - gather 5,500 signatures of Lakewood voters to put this issue before the people.  Petitions, and instructions, are available here.