[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 68 (Tuesday, May 5, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5099]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     PORTLAND'S STREETCAR EXTENSION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, last week's decision by the Secretary of 
Transportation Ray LaHood to authorize $75 million in Federal funds to 
extend Portland's streetcar was not just important news for our 
community, although it was welcome. Indeed, it's going to create over 
1,200 new jobs, construction starting almost immediately.
  It's going to help serve as a magnet for development for a broad 
swath of our community. But it is important for what it symbolizes as 
the potential for a new partnership with the Federal Government for the 
reintroduction of the modern streetcar into our communities across the 
country.
  One hundred and twenty years ago, streetcars were very much in 
evidence here in Washington, DC and, indeed, from coast to coast. You 
could travel from Boston, Massachusetts, to Chicago, all but about 13 
miles, uninterrupted, on streetcars and interurban electric systems. 
These streetcars shaped our modern communities with an efficient 
mechanism for transportation. People liked them, and it was something 
that helped develop housing and downtown density.
  Over the course of this last decade, I am proud of the role our 
community has played helping to launch the first modern streetcar in 
the United States that is serving as a model for what can happen across 
the country. Our first line has already been extended three times. It 
has attracted over $3.5 billion of new development, millions of 
passengers and, very important, the trips that aren't being taken by 
automobile, saving carbon pollution, fighting congestion, saving people 
money.
  The decision by the Department of Transportation to administer the 
small starts legislation that I authored in the last reauthorization 
means that we can spread these benefits all across the country. There 
are dozens of cities, Boise, Idaho; Washington, DC; Tucson; Fort 
Lauderdale; Charlotte; Cincinnati; Des Moines; Miami; Providence, Rhode 
Island; New Haven, Connecticut; Seattle, Salt Lake.
  The list is extensive of communities that are poised and ready to go 
with a modest amount of investment. The streetcar costs a fraction of 
what a light rail system would do. Our initial streetcar costs less 
than 1 mile of urban freeway.
  But it's important to think about the ripple effects across the 
country. Not only can you think multiplication of the 1,200 
construction jobs that we have in Portland that could be visited in 
these communities, just on laying the tracks, reshaping the landscape, 
relocating the utilities, but it also is going to be a magnet for the 
development on the adjacent property. This is something that is a 
signal to developers large and small about a transportation 
alternative.
  Then there is the opportunity for the first time in 58 years to have 
a modern American streetcar manufactured in the United States. We have 
developed in the City of Portland a prototype car that is being 
manufactured locally that's being delivered to this new project. Each 
streetcar results in 15 additional manufacturing jobs in our community, 
but also another 15 jobs per car for subcontractors across America. I 
have a list of subcontractors from coast-to-coast, particularly in the 
hard-hit manufacturing areas of the upper Midwest where machine shops 
are going to be providing parts for this modern American streetcar.
  Mr. Speaker, this is an opportunity for this Congress and the new 
administration to build on the promise, not just to have a streetcar 
line extended in the City of Portland, but to start a modern industry 
of rail transport, taking us back to the future, with the tram, with 
the trolley, with the streetcar, whatever one wants to call it, that 
will have a transformational effect on our communities while it helps 
revitalize our economy.

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