Albert Neupaver
Analyst · Great Lakes Review
Yes, the SAFETEA-LU, at this point, I believe, it's been extended now to the end of the year along with the budget. And I think that it was really held at last year's level or very close to it. I know our government has a lot to do between now and the end of the year. And we feel this is 1 important area that they really need to come to grips and as how they fund the transportation area, not just transit, but our highways, our bridges. And I think that most politicians would tell you, it's pretty high in their priority to really grapple this. We would expect that it's still -- the biggest controversy we see is not related to Transit funding and trying to improve the Freight area, it really is around the high-speed rail where -- although some of the politicians in the states are saying, "Hey, you've got this $8 billion you put into high-speed rail, and you want to give me a few million of it but you're not going to tell me how we're going to get funding, is this ongoing. And are you going to be here for us 5 years from now when we have to spend more money?" And I think that's just been a little bit of a political football. I think you also see other states that's saying, "Hey, I'll take that and I'll find ways to not necessarily put in the super high-speed rail but maybe I can upgrade the rail systems we have to get the speeds up faster." I think the funding is going to be there. I think it's a must. When you really sit back and think about funding for our transit system, we don't have an alternative. If we expect this economy to continue to grow, if we expect the recovery to continue, we got to put money into the infrastructure. And that infrastructure is really mass transit and freight railroads, which is the backbone of that whole system. And when you look at what trains are able to do, whether it be freight or transit, the amount of cars that takes off the road and the amount of trucks, the environmental friendliness, the urbanization that I mentioned early. I think that, that funding is going to be there. I think there's going to be some political positioning related to some of the more issues that are kind of hot, but overall, that funding is going to be there.