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“PORTLAND'S STREETCAR EXTENSION” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H5099 on May 5, 2009.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
PORTLAND'S STREETCAR EXTENSION
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, last week's decision by the Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood to authorize $75 million in Federal funds to extend Portland's streetcar was not just important news for our community, although it was welcome. Indeed, it's going to create over 1,200 new jobs, construction starting almost immediately.
It's going to help serve as a magnet for development for a broad swath of our community. But it is important for what it symbolizes as the potential for a new partnership with the Federal Government for the reintroduction of the modern streetcar into our communities across the country.
One hundred and twenty years ago, streetcars were very much in evidence here in Washington, DC and, indeed, from coast to coast. You could travel from Boston, Massachusetts, to Chicago, all but about 13 miles, uninterrupted, on streetcars and interurban electric systems. These streetcars shaped our modern communities with an efficient mechanism for transportation. People liked them, and it was something that helped develop housing and downtown density.
Over the course of this last decade, I am proud of the role our community has played helping to launch the first modern streetcar in the United States that is serving as a model for what can happen across the country. Our first line has already been extended three times. It has attracted over $3.5 billion of new development, millions of passengers and, very important, the trips that aren't being taken by automobile, saving carbon pollution, fighting congestion, saving people money.
The decision by the Department of Transportation to administer the small starts legislation that I authored in the last reauthorization means that we can spread these benefits all across the country. There are dozens of cities, Boise, Idaho; Washington, DC; Tucson; Fort Lauderdale; Charlotte; Cincinnati; Des Moines; Miami; Providence, Rhode Island; New Haven, Connecticut; Seattle, Salt Lake.
The list is extensive of communities that are poised and ready to go with a modest amount of investment. The streetcar costs a fraction of what a light rail system would do. Our initial streetcar costs less than 1 mile of urban freeway.
But it's important to think about the ripple effects across the country. Not only can you think multiplication of the 1,200 construction jobs that we have in Portland that could be visited in these communities, just on laying the tracks, reshaping the landscape, relocating the utilities, but it also is going to be a magnet for the development on the adjacent property. This is something that is a signal to developers large and small about a transportation alternative.
Then there is the opportunity for the first time in 58 years to have a modern American streetcar manufactured in the United States. We have developed in the City of Portland a prototype car that is being manufactured locally that's being delivered to this new project. Each streetcar results in 15 additional manufacturing jobs in our community, but also another 15 jobs per car for subcontractors across America. I have a list of subcontractors from coast-to-coast, particularly in the hard-hit manufacturing areas of the upper Midwest where machine shops are going to be providing parts for this modern American streetcar.
Mr. Speaker, this is an opportunity for this Congress and the new administration to build on the promise, not just to have a streetcar line extended in the City of Portland, but to start a modern industry of rail transport, taking us back to the future, with the tram, with the trolley, with the streetcar, whatever one wants to call it, that will have a transformational effect on our communities while it helps revitalize our economy.
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