Train Wreck Vindicates Trump on Crumbling Infrastructure

For over a year in the presidential contest, Donald Trump has been pounding away at the pressing need to rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

The investigation has only just begun into the recent train wreck in New Jersey — but it vindicates the GOP nominee’s contention that transportation is a major issue not getting enough serious attention.

“Roads bring jobs,” former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said as he worked to extend Interstate 69 from Evansville to Indianapolis in the previous decade.

On Thursday, a speeding NJ Transit train sped through a stop at the end of the track at the railroad’s terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey, a hub for New York City-area commuters, according to The Wall Street Journal. One person died and more than 100 were injured. The disaster brings the infrastructure to the forefront yet again.

Trump has outlined a proposal that would actually commit roughly double the $275 billion Hillary Clinton has proposed for infrastructure. Trump has even floated the notion of spending as much as $1 trillion to repair and rebuild public roads, bridges, railways, and airports.

Infrastructure is a salient issue that works on several fronts.

[lz_table title=”10-Year Infrastructure Gap” source=”American Society of Civil Engineers”]Sector,Projected Gap
Surface transportation,$1.101T
Water/sewage,$105B
Electricity,$177B
Airports,$42B
Ports,$15B
All sectors,$1.44T
[/lz_table]

1.) Like defense spending, it’s a federal spending responsibility that cannot be outsourced to other nations. Local and regional infrastructure projects employ local Americans, most in private firms.

The workers, too, can range from the highly skilled to less skilled. It’s a winning issue to attract blue-collar voters. Republicans like it too. In a poll by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers reported by The Hill last August, 53 percent of Republicans said the infrastructure has decayed in the previous five years.

2.) Once completed, ease of transportation speeds up commerce, and attracts new commerce. Businesses like to locate near good roads and rail lines. “Roads bring jobs,” former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said as he worked to extend Interstate 69 from Evansville to Indianapolis in the previous decade.

3.) It corrects real problems. The nation’s leaders have given lip service to the issue, with President Obama promising much of his $860 billion “stimulus” in 2009 would go to infrastructure projects. But Casey Dinges, senior managing director of the American Society of Civil Engineers, said in June that only $100 billion to $150 billion at most went to real infrastructure projects.

The issue, if not addressed, will continue to cause fatalities. Just last year, eight people died on an Amtrak train in Philadelphia when it failed to slow around a curve.

Well into the 21st century, it’s puzzling as to why computerized fail-safe systems aren’t installed. But regional and local officials have been pleading for more money to install safety features.

“We’re behind in introducing the latest technologies,” Richard Barone told The Wall Street Journal. Barone is a transportation expert at the Regional Plan Association, a New York City-based urban planning group. “The agencies are undercapitalized.”

That means they need money. Federal grants to states for infrastructure are fairly common as federal roads stretch everywhere. The federal government also encourages rail projects, with taxpayer money, to ease road traffic.

Infrastructure problems tend to pile up if unaddressed properly. Washington, D.C., is currently in the grips of major problems — fires, deaths, smoky tunnels — with its subway system. Federal money could help Metro, which is vital to easing congestion on the region’s roads. Washington’s booming suburbs have caused the problem.

But not all of Trump’s plans involve taxpayer money. On Sept. 22, Trump addressed the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh, where natural gas producers had gathered. Trump promised to cut regulations and ease the federal approval process. The past few years have seen Obama block several top energy projects, such as the expansion of Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have connected oil producers in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas.

[lz_related_box id=”160723″]

“We will streamline the permitting process for all energy infrastructure projects, including the billions of dollars in projects held up by President Obama — creating countless more jobs in the process,” Trump said.

That’s likely to please labor unions, who have been at odds with their peers in the Democratic Party over controversial pipeline projects. Once pipelines are blocked, oil is simply shipped via train or truck, stressing an infrastructure used primarily by individuals or less hazardous commercial shipping.

So how much will it really cost?

As LifeZette reported in June, a report this year by the American Society of Civil Engineers calculated that the gap between expected funding and the cost of rebuilding and repairing infrastructure — such as roads and bridges, water treatment plants, the electrical grid, airports and seaports — is $1.44 trillion from 2016 through 2025.

Some of that, though, is the private sector’s responsibility  — such as the grid. Some of it falls on localities, such as water treatment. But there is little doubt every state, county, and city engineer will have his or her hand out in the next decade — and voters are watching.

If Trump continues to focus on the need for federal aid to fix roads, bridges, airports, seaports, and rail lines, he could very well build a path for himself directly into the White House.