ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュのTransportation Sec. Buttigieg, Va. Gov. Northam, make announcement at Amtrak station

Stacey: (00:09)
Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Very quickly, our partners with Amtrak and CSX have asked me to just remind everyone that is here today, that this is an active train station and so we don’t want you to get too close to the yellow lines or to the train tracks.
(00:29)
We also want to just remind you all that we are definitely having a mask requirement, so please make sure you have on your mask and then also please make sure we are adhering to social distancing guidelines today. There is also hand sanitizer stations that are available and hand sanitizer that’s available if you should need it. So thank you.
(00:54)
Let me see again, good morning. On behalf of Governor Northam and his Intergovernmental Affairs Office in Washington, DC, I welcome Secretary Pete Buttigieg and all of the dignitaries to this official ceremony for the Transforming Rail in Virginia. Executing this definitive agreements with Amtrak CXS and Virginia Railways Express.
(01:21)
Today, I have the pleasure of introducing a friend and a colleague, Shannon Valentine. Shannon was appointed Secretary of Transportation by Governor Ralph Northam, January, 2018, and she oversees six billion multi-module transportation system, crossing seven agencies, with more than 10,000 employees. She’s a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates and during which time she led legislative efforts in 2009, to launch the very first Virginia supported Amtrak train in Lynchburg, Virginia. We have certainly come a long way.

speaker 2: (02:04)Passengers to practice social distance-
Stacey: (02:07)Shannon-
speaker 2: (02:07)Stations onboard the train. We recommend everyone follow CDC guidance to protect all passengers and crew. Do not ride the train if you are sick. Cover your cough or sneeze. Avoid touching your face.

Stacey: (02:24)
I thought that was very important for us to be able to all here and then closing in my remarks here, Shannon always says that she works with the very best team in government and we work with the very best secretary. As it is with so many transportation projects, Shannon has been at the heart of transforming rail in Virginia.(02:44)
Please everyone, help me welcome our moderator today, Shannon Secretary Valentine.

Secretary Shannon Valentine: (02:54)
Okay, please be seated. Hello everyone. Stacey, thank you. Stacey runs our liaison office here in Washington. She has been integral in planning this event with Amy White, Charles Small from USDOT and Roy Sherman. Just thank you all so much. And from the very beginning, when we first started talking about building a new long bridge, Stacey walked with us side-by-side to legislator’s offices when it was just a dream. So Stacey, thank you for being with us for such a long time.
(03:31)
It’s certainly a privilege for me to be here today with Secretary Buttigieg, Governor Northam, all of our distinguished guests. As President Biden’s Rescue Plan is an historic accomplishment in supporting the American people, from the health and safety of our frontline workers to the delivery of vaccines and critical goods, today also represents an historic accomplishment, not just in transforming the I-95 corridor, but in transforming how passenger, commuter and freight rail, can work together to expand and improve the performance of rail transportation.
(04:11)
From the moment this agreement in principle, the concept was negotiated with CSX and announced in December of 2019, with our partners Amtrak and VRE, we have been working deliberately and sequentially over these past 15 months. The issuance of the final Environmental Impact Statement and Records of Decisions from FRA, the establishment of the Virginia Rail Passenger Rail Authority, the congressional authorization to allow the transfer of national park service land for the construction of a rail bridge was included in the omnibus bill passed by Congress in December of 2020, a small miracle that we truly appreciate. Thank you, Congressman Beyer for your leadership on that.
(04:57)
The issuance of a favorable determination from the Surface Transportation Board, the authorization from the Commonwealth Transportation Board to move forward with these contracts and today, the execution of the definitive agreements with CSX Amtrak and VRE. Through an extraordinary year, often with great uncertainty, there has been steadfast commitment to reaching this destination. This commitment was only strengthened by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, as we prepare for build back better and recognizing the fundamental role transportation plays in the lives of Americans each and every day; promoting access, connecting people to essential work, moving crucial cargo and creating an economy that works for all people, which is why we are honored today to have the United States Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg with us. A man who has lived these values, as a two term mayor in his hometown of South Bend, Indiana, Indiana, and as an officer in the US Navy Reserves for seven years.
(06:09)
Under his leadership as Mayor Pete, which we will always remember you as, a Smart Streets initiative was launched in historically underserved communities, small businesses were supported along often neglected corridors, and millions of dollars of private investment were directed to once abandoned neighborhoods with a focus on infrastructure, clean energy, job creation, and accessible transportation for all. (06:36)
Please help me welcome Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Secretary Pete Buttigieg: (06:38)
Thank you, please. Well, thank you so much Secretary Valentine and it’s such a treat to be able to celebrate good news with good weather and in very good company. Governor Northam honored to be with you. Congressman Beyer, delighted to actually be on your home turf and great to be reunited to Amtrak CEO, Bill Flynn. I want to congratulate and acknowledge you, not just for today’s occasion, but the extraordinary work that Amtrak has done in this very challenging season.
(07:20)
And of course, to CSX CEO, Jim Foote. Thank you for your leadership and thank you for everything that has helped bring us to this day and to all who are joining us right now. We are again celebrating good news, an expansion of rail service that will reduce congestion, boost the economy and make life better for people across the Commonwealth of Virginia and contribute to the economy of the region as a whole.
(07:46)
We’re marking a collaboration among federal, state, and private sector partners, to make this type of transformational investment. That is exactly what our country needs more of and exactly what our communities deserve. And so I again want to thank everyone who has helped to make that possible.
(08:03)
Every day at stations like this across America, transportation workers are serving on the front lines of America’s response to this pandemic. They have been delivering vaccines, getting people to essential jobs and getting goods to wherever they need to go. Their service has been extraordinary, but the challenges facing them and facing our entire transportation system, have been daunting. Far too many workers have been worrying not only about their safety, but about the safety of their job, about their next paycheck, and too many passengers have had occasion to worry about how they could get to work. So we are proud to say on behalf of this administration, help is here.
(08:53)
Thanks to the American Rescue Plan that Congressman Beyer, along with Senator Warner and Senator Kaine and so many others voted for, more than $43 billion will go to support our nation’s transportation system, our passengers and our workers. So it’s fitting that we’re gathered here at an Amtrak station to show exactly how the Rescue Plan is going to help.
(09:15)
Now, the Rescue Plan contains $1.7 billion for Amtrak to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID. These funds are providing much needed assistance that will allow Amtrak to return more than 1,000 furloughed employees to work and maintain critical rail service to passengers across the country and it’s already having a positive impact.
(09:37)
After the passage of the Rescue Plan, Amtrak announced the restoration of 12 long distance routes to seven day a week operations, including the Crescent, Palmetto, Silver Star and Silver Meteor routes, right here through Alexandria, Virginia. This means that people will continue to be able to reach the jobs, the services, and the loved ones, waiting on the other side of that train ride. And right here, you can see the King Street Metro Station, just across the way.
(10:04)
So I also want to touch on what the Rescue Plan means to public transit. The Rescue Plan has more than $30 billion in funding for public transit agencies, helping them to avoid layoffs and service cuts. We know that the cuts that these agencies were facing disproportionately harm workers who depend on public transportation, including so many of the workers, we have belatedly come to call essential workers. So this is a matter of equity. It is a matter of doing right by so many of the heroes of the pandemic.
(10:36)
In the Washington metropolitan area alone, $1.4 billion has been set aside under the American Rescue Plan, to provide economic relief to transit operators in the DC area, Maryland suburbs and Northern Virginia, including WMATA and other transit operators.
(10:54)
Now, in addition to getting medical professionals to their hospitals, food workers to grocery stores, and everything in between, transit workers across this country have stepped up in remarkable ways during the pandemic, again, in every part of this country. We learned that last week in a rural community of Levelland, Texas, Spartan, which is their local public transit agency, retrofitted their brand new transit facility to be the community’s first mass vaccination site. And in a single day, that vaccine clinic, vaccinated nearly a thousand people.
(11:26)
In Jacksonville, Florida, the Transportation Authority there helped to launch Wellness on Wheels, a mobile vaccine service, ensuring that seniors and underserved communities, had the opportunity to secure those critically needed vaccinations and these are the kinds of efforts that are going to get more support, thanks to the American Rescue Plan.
(11:46)
It also includes dedicated funds to help rural transit agencies, transit service for the elderly and individuals with disabilities and transit on tribal lands. So with the American Rescue Plan, help is here and that’s just the first step. The project we’re celebrating today will help you.
(12:03)
And that’s just the first step. The project we’re celebrating today will help people across the region and the work we’re doing collectively will help people across the country. So we’re going to continue to look to see success stories like this in communities, large and small across the country if we seize the moment that’s upon us, a once in a century alignment of demonstrated need bipartisan interest, public inpatients and I can tell you a very supportive president leading the way, and we can’t wait to work with our partners in States and communities. And of course, in the Senate and the United States Congress to get this done. So with that, I’ll be handing it back over to Secretary Valentine. Congratulations again, and thank you for hosting us.

Secretary Shannon Valentine: (12:57)
Thank you so much. We see this as a start of a very long relationship. It’s now my great pleasure to introduce our governor, the leader behind this collaborative initiative we are recognizing today. Prior to his inauguration in January 2018, Governor Northam served as an army doctor, pediatric neurologist, business owner, state Senator, and Lieutenant governor. And throughout, he has demonstrated his commitment to work with leaders on both sides of the aisle to build a Virginia that works better for every family, no matter who they are or where they live. May I present the 73rd governor of our Commonwealth Governor, Ralph Northam.

Ralph Northam: (13:48)
Well, good morning. And what a beautiful morning this is. I don’t know who to give the credit to, but I know that Congressman Beyer has stepped up. So we’re in your hometown. So thank you so much for a beautiful day Congressman. And Secretary Valentine, thank you first of all, for your kind words and your introduction, but more importantly, your leadership, just your advocacy for transportation and infrastructure in Virginia has really put Virginia in a position to be the number one state in this great country of ours in which to do business. So I thank you and your staff as well for all of your wonderful work. Thank you all for being here today. And what is really, as has been mentioned, a very exciting announcement for the Commonwealth of Virginia and Secretary Pete, welcome to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Thank you for your comments and thank you for your service to this country. I also want to recognize Congressman Don Beyer [inaudible 00:14:54]. Yes, very popular, not only here in Alexandria, but in all of the Commonwealth and perhaps the greatest Lieutenant governor that ever served this Commonwealth.
(15:09)
Don and I always liked to get in a little bit of history when we have the opportunity to say a few words, but he is the 36th Lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Also, a welcome to Bill Flynn, CEO of Amtrak, and also Jim Foote CEO of CSX. This has truly been a team effort. Thanks to all of you. There’s a lot of work, as you all know, that goes on behind the scenes. So I want to recognize our deputy secretary of transportation, Nick Donohue thank you. John Lawson, as well as Jennifer Mitchell with the Department of Rail and Public Transportation. Thanks so much for all of your work on this project. And I want to thank them and the lawyers and our Attorney General’s office who have worked very hard on the project that we’re announcing today. I want to thank the city of Alexandria for hosting us and to Alexandria vice mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, who is also chair of the Virginia Railway Express. So please give her a round of applause as well.
(16:17)
Today we’re celebrating a major milestone in our work to make it easier for people and goods to move around Virginia and up and down our East coast. Together with our partners at Amtrak, CSX and VRE. We are finalizing the agreements needed to move forward with a tremendous project. Our $3.7 billion transforming rail in Virginia initiative. This transformative plan will make travel faster and safer. It will make it easier to move up and down our East coast, and it will connect urban and rural Virginia. Under this new initiative, the Commonwealth will construct a new bridge over the Potomac dedicated to passenger rail, acquire 386 miles of rail right away, and 223 miles of track and invest more than $1 billion in additional rail infrastructure projects over the next decade.
(17:27)
This project establishes a pathway to separate passenger and freight operations, which will help both run more smoothly and efficiently. And it creates a vital link in our national rail network by connecting the Northeast and Southeast carters. Now, America, as you all know, is still in many ways a nation of drivers, we tend to like our cars, but all of those cars on the road come with a price. Every year in Virginia vehicle travelers experience 230 million hours of delays, I’ll repeat that. 230 million hours of delays resulting in $6.5 billion in annual congestion costs, but adding more highway lanes, isn’t the answer. A study of I-95 found that adding just one lane in each direction for 50 miles would cost $12.5 billion. It would also take 10 years and by the time it was done the [inaudible 00:18:45] would be just as congested as when we started. So we needed a different solution.
(18:52)
Rail can add that additional capacity at a third of the cost. So thanks to this unique partnership with Amtrak, CSX and VRE in the next 10 years, we will do the following. Double the number of Virginia supported Amtrak trains providing hourly service. We will increase VRE service for commuters by 60%, including weekend service. We will lay the foundation for a new high-speed Southeast rail corridor from Petersburg into North Carolina. We will preserve a freight carter between Doswell and Clifton Forge for future east-west passenger service. And we will create the potentially… They’d like it to, you got all kinds of fans here Congressman Beyer I like this. And finally, we’ll create the potential to expand rail service to more parts of our Commonwealth, this is now important, including rail to Christiansburg and Blacksburg in Southwest Virginia. So it will be easier to hop on Amtrak to New York for the weekend. It will be easier to commute, to work using VRE, and it will be easier to take a train from Southwest Virginia to Northern Virginia.
(20:22)
We’ll also be increasing capacity and making our rail service more reliable for both passenger and freight. We could not do this without our partners at Amtrak, CSX and VRE, and their commitments to this initiative. CSX has worked with us to develop a path towards separating out passenger and freight operation. For example, with Virginia, building a new passenger only long bridge over the Potomac, we will help ensure that both passenger and freight trains can move faster. VRE has committed $200 million over 10 years to increase its service because we know that many essential jobs are not nine to five, Monday through Friday, the 21st century economy needs a train schedule to match. Amtrak has committed $944 million over the next decade for infrastructure improvements providing for six new state supported trains and serving as Virginia’s inner city passenger rail operator. Rail also helps our environment and our economy.
(21:36)
The American Public Transportation Association tells us that rail travel has 83% fewer greenhouse gases than driving and up to 73% fewer than flying. Could you turn the wind down just a little bit Congressman? Every $1 billion invested in rail creates 24,000 highly skilled jobs. And every dollar invested in rail agencies generates $4 in economic benefits. So the transforming rail in Virginia initiative will grow Virginia’s economy by $2 billion annually and improve the mobility of passenger and freight rail. I want to thank the Biden administration and Secretary Buttigieg for the federal government support for rail and other essential infrastructure projects. I also thank the Biden administration and our congressional delegation for the American Recovery Act, which includes critical funding for transit and rail that will help people stay connected to jobs, healthcare and food services.
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