Welcome to the FastLane: The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation

Latest awards bring US closer to national high-speed passenger rail network

This is a big day for the Department of Transportation, for the Obama Administration, and for the American people.  We are bringing President Obama's vision of American high-speed rail one step closer to reality with $2.02 billion in targeted investments.

And I am thrilled.

Today we are advancing President Obama's historic high-speed rail blueprint through 22 carefully selected projects that will create jobs, boost manufacturing, and spur development while laying the foundation for our future economic competitiveness. We are providing two billion dollars to 15 states and Amtrak to help build out America's high-speed rail network, enabling people and goods to travel more quickly, safely and energy-efficiently than ever before.

 

When DOT announced the competition for these awards in March, we were inundated with 98 applications seeking more than $10 billion.  Americans heard the President's plan to connect 80 percent of the nation to high-speed rail in the next 25 years, and they responded with a loud and clear, "Yes!"

And it's no wonder.  High-speed rail offers significant economic and practical benefits for the states and regions that build these lines and the passengers who ride them.

FAA VALE grant will help reduce emissions, noise at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

Last Thursday, Federal Aviaion Administrator Randy Babbitt traveled to Seattle to award the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport a Voluntary Airport Low Emissions (VALE) grant for $18.3 million.

The grant, the largest of the FAA's VALE awards, supports installation of a pre-conditioned air plant that will make Sea-Tac one of the nation's few airports with a single, centralized system that covers the entire airport. The new system will allow aircraft at the gates to shut off auxiliary power and connect to the airport's cleaner central heating and cooling supply.

FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, middle, gets briefed on the system and its VALE-supported replacement.

The project will reduce aircraft emissions at Sea-Tac by more than 50,000 metric tons of CO2. That's the equivalent of taking 8,700 cars off the road, and I think the residents of Seattle and Tacoma will appreciate that reduction. It will also save airlines up to five million gallons of fuel and $10 million in fuel costs per year.

"We've shown this can make a tremendous impact on our environmental footprint, one of our key goals," said Mark Reis, Sea-Tac Airport Managing Director. "The positive effects also include reduced noise from aircraft while they are parked at the gates."

Even better, the project is expected to create 120 jobs.

With the Voluntary Airport Low Emissions program, the FAA seeks to reduce airport ground emissions through low emission vehicles, refueling and recharging stations, gate electrification, and other airport air quality improvements like the new Sea-Tac pre-conditioned air plant. Since 2005, FAA has awarded 40 grants totalling $83 million.

Indianapolis school hosts Grandparents Day, Safe Routes to School mash-up

I cannot imagine a better way to begin Grandparents Day than by walking two of my grandkids, Ella and Henry, to school with my wife, Kathy. And to combine that with a schoolwide event at St. Thomas Aquinas School in Indianapolis celebrating Safe Routes to School is really a terrific bonus.

Ella, a 2nd grader, walked with my wife Kathy, my daughter Amy, her husband Kevin, and me. Henry, in kindergarten, rode along on his bike with training wheels. Together, we formed what is known in the Safe Routes community as a "walking school bus."

A walking school bus simply collects a small group of students with one or more adults on their walk to and from school. Typically, the students live near one another. Even if they already walk to school, the benefit of the walking school bus is that it provides a consistent, supervised system in which children can walk to school under the watchful eye of an adult.

I am so proud of Ella. When we arrived at school after our walk, we were met by several members of the press, and she handled herself like a champ with the media. I don't think Mayor Greg Ballard and Congressman Andre Carson, who joined our walk, got a word in between them. I've always said Ella's a force to be reckoned with.

Reporters JT and Hannah, with editor Emma; keep asking the tough questions, guys!

The toughest media we faced were the school reporters, J.T. Malone and Hannah Gardner, and their editor, Emma Strenski. I look forward to reading their work in the next edition of the school paper.

Meanwhile, other kids from the school joined the "bicycle train," sort of a walking school bus on wheels. And, since I can't be in two places at once--I really wanted to!--today's special bike train guest was a great Safe Routes partner, Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists.