Barack Obama was elected in the hope that he would bring fundamental change to our nation’s policies. The most important change we need is to shift the basic structure of our economy away from burning fossil fuels, to renewable energies. This would solve a number of problems at the same time: climate change, dependence on foreign oil, the trade and payments deficits, economic renewal, unemployment, infrastructure maintenance. Unfortunately, President Obama has decided – or been coerced – to be a “centrist,” which basically means defending the status quo. That was all too evident in this week’s conference in Boston on mass transit, "Next Stop: A Summit on the Future of Transit."

The keynote speaker was Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff. Rather than lay out a bold vision for a massive infrastructure building program for mass transit that could create millions of direct and indirect jobs and create a new, sustainable future for the United States, Rogoff told the conference:

At times like these, it's more important than ever to have the courage to ask a hard question: If you can't afford to operate the system you have, why does it make sense for us to partner in your expansion? . . . .Might it make more sense for us to roll up our sleeves and target our resources on repairing the system we have?

Here is the complete, short article from Rail News.