Bigwigs in New York State government have been using the prospect of a high speed rail service to justify big contacts to politically connected engineering consultants for over twenty years.
Last January Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno joined the pork rind party with an announcement of a "New York High Speed Rail Task Force Action Program", which would immediately receive $22 million in state funds. New York pols were no doubt drooling over his prediction that $10 billion would go into the project by 2025.
One of the first steps in the "Action Program" was to be a commuter rail demonstration between Albany and Saratoga Springs.
Unfortunately the demonstration could not take place because the single-car diesel unit that was to be used was too tall to go under one of the bridges on the route. Possession of a yardstick or any other instrument for measuring distance does not appear to be a requirement for politically connected engineering consultants hard at work on the "Action Program".
John Egan, who has spent many years in senior state government positions and has overseen many New York Capital Region construction projects, originally headed the "Action Program" but has since gone on to greener pastures as the head of the state Office of General Services.
It appears that few legislators in Albany have any real understanding or concern about what's needed for a modern intercity rail system. If you've ever driven around the streets of Albany (or over the Dunn Memorial Bridge which suffered a partial collapse a while back after passing inspection) it's pretty clear that there's not much understanding or concern about any aspect of the transportation infrastructure.
In other news, the sun rose again yesterday, but Hell has not yet frozen over.
Much info for this post came from a recent article in the Schenectady Gazette.
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