News for March, 2005
Tuesday, March 29th, 2005
The city of Blue Island, a south suburb of Chicago, has been engaged in a planning process to revitalize its downtown area by making better use of its transportation assets. The vilage is located on both Metra’s Rock Island and Electric lines, and near a large area of freight rail yards to the east. The planning process is a result of a partnership between CNT and the village, the goal of which is to simultaneously spur redevelopment of not only the downtown, but also the industrial areas of this older suburb. It is hoped this this strategy could be a model for other csimilar ommunities, both in the region and across the country.
Read more about Blue Island in the Daily Southtown. Read more about transit-focused development in the Chicago Tribune.
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Monday, March 28th, 2005
Chicago Public Radio’s Mike Rhee visits Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood to see how the community is using advanced wireless technologies to get online. North Lawndale is one of four Illinois communities in which CNT is building a wireless network, using WiFi technology, to test the feasibility of WiFi to deliver affordable, high speed broadband access.
Listen to WiFi in North Lawndale.
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Wednesday, March 9th, 2005
CNT president Scott Bernstein testified Friday to the Illinois General Assembly Committee on Mass Transit about opportunities the State could take to achieve better inter-city travel options. Bernstein outlined twelve recommendations to the State that could serve the interests of its residents and businesses by increasing transportation choice, reducing unnecessary household and business expenditures and reducing congestion and improving environmental quality.
Read more »
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Monday, March 7th, 2005
The Bush administration’s proposed cuts to Amtrak have many groups wondering why the U.S. has no problem subsidizing other forms of transportation, but not passenger rail. As the Surface Transportation Policy Project’s STPP Anne Canby notes in an article by Timothy Spence for Hearst Newspapers, “Nobody blinks at giving them [the airline industry] however many billions of dollars to save that system.”
And as the article notes, the issue of Amtrak subsidies is not likely to end anytime soon, as signs–rising oil prices and ongoing financial trouble in the airline industry–indicate that passenger rail could have an even more important role in the nation’s transportation system going forward. It certainly proved its worth during the days following 9/11.
As CNT’s Scott Bernstein notes, “It’s a really good time to be taking a look at what [transportation investments] we are financing and how we’re financing it.”
Read the article.
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