Mica Eyes Rail to Get More Trucks, Cars Off Roadways

The new chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, signaling domestic transport goals similar to those of the Obama administration, says he wants to advance several initiatives that shift commercial truck loads and automobiles off the nation's stressed highways.

"My goal would be to get more trucks off of the highway, and more cars off of the highway," Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., told The Journal of Commerce. He said that would ease pressure on federal road and bridge spending out of the Highway Trust Fund, by reducing the pace of wear and tear.

The comments are close to some made last year by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and other DOT officials, that federal policy aims to get more trucks off the road to better distribute U.S. transportation demand among other modes. Those DOT remarks drew a sharp criticism by some highway users including the American Trucking Associations.

Mica told The JOC he will pursue various efforts to get better use out of the existing highway footprint rather than just building new roads. He wants to speed up projects to save costs, push through stimulus and other money already in the pipeline, perhaps re-launch an infrastructure bonding program for states and woo more private investment to transportation.

He also wants the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loan program to fund more rail projects with its $34 billion in unused loan authority. Mica said he would not try to shift RRIF loans to road projects, "but I can free that up for rail infrastructure … (and) enhancement of rail takes pressure off of my highways, if it's properly applied, too."

He also wants to take private the Amtrak Auto Train service that runs from central Florida nearly to Washington, D.C., in which drivers load their automobiles on the train and ride inside train cars for the 855-mile trip. Mica said that could be sharply expanded and perhaps broadened to include commercial trucks, as in Europe.

Such efforts, he said, save energy and "save the infrastructure, because four out of every five dollars for transportation now goes just for maintaining infrastructure. So I look at ways to take that asset, not only stop sitting on the (highway) asset, but stop wrecking the asset."

-- Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.