U.S. transportation wish lists put forth

Some of the nation's top transportation leaders descended on Illinois Thursday making a pitch for increased funding for roads and transit while offering predictions about what a new president would mean for regional megaprojects.

"Our transportation network has been the envy of the world, but we're starting to fall behind," warned Minnesota Rep. James Oberstar during the William O. Lipinski Symposium on Transportation Policy at Northwestern University in Evanston. The gloomy financial forecast is "all the more reason to invest in transportation infrastructure," said Oberstar, a Democrat who chairs the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. "Every billion invested in infrastructure means 34,000 jobs."

Rep. Jerry Costello, a downstate Democrat who heads up the House Subcommittee on Aviation, said the House will likely take up an economic stimulus package after Thanksgiving and added, "I've been assured that a large part of that will be for infrastructure."

With the expiration of the 2005 surface transportation act, which funds highways, transit, rail and safety programs, Congress is expected to reauthorize a new bill in 2009.

Lawmakers said they hoped to allocate $500 billion for infrastructure this time, but acknowledged it had been shortchanged in the past.

"It's not a sexy political topic," said Rep. Tom Petri, a Wisconsin Republican who sits on the transportation committee. "But it's the kind of thing people expect government to do."

Close to home, officials said programs such as O'Hare International Airport modernization and the CREATE initiative, which aims to improve the freight train bottleneck in Chicago, could benefit from the transportation legislation.

Oberstar noted that it takes freight trains as long to get through Chicago as it does for them to travel from the West Coast and said the congestion is hurting the region.

"If capacity isn't improved, it will cost 17,000 new jobs and $2 billion in economic activity," he said.

Rep. Daniel Lipinski, a Western Springs Democrat and the area's only representative on the transportation committee, was optimistic that President-elect Obama's Chicago ties would help the region but cautioned against irrational exuberance.

"I think it can be helpful and it also can be helpful if President-elect Obama weighs in on important local projects, but there may be too high of expectations set," he said. "I don't want to start people thinking that money will flow from the skies to Chicago because Barack Obama is in the White House."

Other officials at the symposium included Illinois Transportation Secretary Milton Sees, who wasn't as positive as his federal colleagues about getting more funding at the state level, given Springfield's political gridlock.

"Everyone understands we need a capital bill, but it comes down to how you pay for it," Sees said.

Oberstar's name surfaced more than once as a viable candidate for the post of U.S. transportation secretary.

"I'd welcome the opportunity," Oberstar said, adding he hadn't spoken with Obama and would take the job under certain circumstances. "There would need to be a very clear understanding about what the goals are."