In a bold press release written in all caps across the top of the NCDOT website, the NCDOT Rail Division boldly releases its new plan to spend $43.4 million in stimulus funds as a part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA).
How stimulating might this plan be you ask? This stimulus project will install a camera system at seven different train stations across the state as well as build brand new information kiosks at nine stations across the state. Kannapolis also gets a fancy canopy to shield passengers from the harsh elements of Kannapolis weather.
Other more expensive projects include: the [redundant] Amtrak station in Cary, located 15 minutes from the Amtrak station in Raleigh, will be expanded to a full service branch with ticketing and baggage handling, thus promising the need for more money in the future to staff the expanded operations of the site.
This is yet another example of tax payer money being used wastefully by the government in the name of stimulating the economy. New information kiosks, canopies, and redundancies will not pave the way to recovery. This “stimulus” sequesters money from hard-working Americans (either immediately in the form of tax increases or later on in amortizing our debt), and disperses it haphazardly across the myriad of government departments eagerly seeking cash.
This funding comes from the indiscriminate money-throwing $787 billion ARRA that gave $545 million of tax payer money to the U.S. Depart of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration earlier this year.
Authorities at the NCDOT were not available to comment by the time of this posting.
Extremely misleading. Why is it Republicans always root out rail? Has it not occured to them that we pay for highways in both gas tax and in general funds? $40 billion in highways to $1 billion in Amtrak. What a load.