Senators Carper and Coons Tried to Protect Federal Program That Has Funded a New Train Station for Newark, Pennsylvania’s Circuit and Atlanta’s Beltline

Senator Tom Carper (left) and Senator Chris Coons (right) are co-sponsoring national infrastructure legislation.

Senator Tom Carper (left) and Senator Chris Coons (right) co-sponsored legislation that would have protected a national infrastructure program that delivers.

UPDATE (July 3o): The U.S. Senate passed a multi-year transportation bill without the amendment co-sponsored by Senators Carper and Coons. The bill’s sponsor, Senator Boxer of California, did not permit a vote on the amendment. That means (if the Senate bill is eventually also passed by the House) that this program will have to continue to fight for its survival going forward.

QUESTION: What do these 3 great projects all have in common?

1) The Circuit is a 750-mile proposed network of bicycle and pedestrian trails connecting people to jobs, communities, and parks in the Greater Philadelphia Region. So far, 300 miles have already been built.

2) The Atlanta BeltLine is a redevelopment project that will provide a network of public parks, multi-use trails and transit along a historic 22-mile railroad corridor circling downtown Atlanta and connecting many neighborhoods directly to each other.

FUNDED WITH TIGER: The Penn Street Trail (part of the Circuit) in Philadelphia (left) and Atlanta's Beltiline (right)

FUNDED WITH TIGER: The Penn Street Trail (part of the Circuit) in Philadelphia (left) and Atlanta’s Beltline (right)

3) The Newark Train Station is a $35 million project for an expanded train station in Newark that will seamlessly blend passenger service and operations in the adjacent freight yard, boost regional passenger service and provide a modern, regional gateway to the University of Delaware’s growing science and technology campus in Newark.

ANSWER: All three of these projects have receieved critically important funding from the innovative federal national infrastructure investment program commonly known as “TIGER.” And Senators Carper and Coons have now joined as co-sponsors of legislation to protect this program.

It is not a coincidence that this federal program has been used to support great projects.

Most federal funding for transportation – by the time it trickles down to the states – gets prioritized with less than rigorous criteria. A typical road expansion project that some local developer or politician wants usually has a pretty low bar to convince local transportation agencies to fund. Will this project mean new construction contracts and short-term jobs? Maybe a new shopping mall and subdivision too? And it’s something we’ve done a million times before? Check. OK, then, we love this project, let’s fund it!

But “TIGER” is a different animal altogether. It’s a federal grant program. To win funding, every potential project has to compete against every other applying project across the entire country. So some local road expansion out to farmland tends not to look as compelling when compared to a bridge connecting communities that would save tens of thousands of people an hour of driving every day; or a new train station to catalyze transit-oriented development; or a great new vision for communities and redevelopment like Atlanta’s Beltline.

How competitive is the TIGER grant program? In one earlier round of TIGER grants, there were over 3,000 project applications totaling over $90 billion dollars. Less than 3% of those applications ended up being funded.

That’s extremely competitive.

And there’s more. How does the federal government decide on which tiny few number of projects out of 3,000 to fund? Cynics would immediately claim it’s politics and special favors. Just another example of corrupt government, right?

Actually, the United State Department of Transportation (USDOT) has developed a cost-benefit analysis that is vastly more rigorous and objective than any other transportation prioritization analysis done anywhere else in the country. The Chief Economist of the USDOT actually spoke at last year’s National Bike Summit to explain how this analysis is done.

By co-sponsoring legislation to protect TIGER, Senators Carper and Coons are helping to defend a government program that actually works and delivers value to taxpayers.