This Week in Passenger Transport

During the June 10 opening General Session of the APTA Commuter Rail/Rail Transit Conference in Baltimore, U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) said he believes efforts to reauthorize the Transportation Equity Act for the 21^st Century should focus on expanding the pot of money to provide a greater investment in infrastructure, rather than causing all modes of surface transportation to struggle for limited funds.

"We shouldnt pit rail against bus, new against existing systems," he said. "We have to make the basic case for expanding the effort, and fight for greater resources."

Sarbanes, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over TEA 21 reauthorization, pointed to the transit communitys "great job" in 1998: its efforts preceding the expiration of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Act that led to the passage of TEA 21. For most of the past 50 years, he noted, federal transportation programs primarily referred to roads, until the passage of ISTEA in 1991 and, subsequently, TEA 21.

Another concern Sarbanes cited was the effort to change the federal-local funding match for public transportation projects from the current 80-20 to 50-50, while retaining the 80 percent federal level for highways. "Its important to maintain parity," the senator said. "They shouldnt change the percentages, but if they do, they should change them equally for all modes."

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