Jeremy Cooney and Orlando Rivera, candidates for NYS Senate District 56

Um, Senator Cooney, you've worked on transpor- as the Transportation Chair, you've come on this program to talk about higher speed rail.

I'd say higher speed rail.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, it's not a maglev, but it's, uh-

[laughs]

... it's higher, um, higher speed than maybe people travel on Amtrak.

Um, what's the status of that and, and what do you think is achievable in the future that you would support?

So I'll remind, uh, your listeners and viewers that the average, uh, miles per hour or speed traveled on passenger Amtrak in Upstate New York is between 45 and 55 miles per hour.

We defined high-speed rail as rail systems that can go 125 miles per hour or more.

Um, what we have tried to do to advance the conversation is look at a new pathway or a corridor for which we could operate high-speed rail.

So I'm very interested in connecting Buffalo to New York City by high-speed rail.

Think about what's happening in Central New York with Micron.

All the suppliers that are gonna come around, uh, our neck of the woods here, and then in Buffalo, and then to the east, uh, of Syracuse in the Mohawk Valley.

What a huge opportunity to move people to these economic opportunities, to these jobs, uh, to support more faculty and students coming to our higher educational institutions.

It's a, it is a giant win in terms of attracting population to Upstate New York.

How do we do that? The corridor that I'm interested in studying, that I mentioned earlier, is the New York State Thruway, the I-90 corridor.

And if you look at models in Florida and models out west between Southern California and Las Vegas, they're taking these large interstates and they're putting tracks down the median or on the sides.

So we were able to secure $500,000 in the state budget, not this, not this year, but the year before.

Uh, we're currently undergoing an evaluation, we call it a corridor ID study, that the just- New York State Department of Transportation is working on to see if that is feasible.

If that is feasible, this is how we differentiate our system from California, which often gets mocked as being- Crazy expensive and delayed.

We control, through the New York State Thruway Authority, the land associated with the roads of I-90.

So we will not have to get all these, you know, permitting and, uh, you know, part- um, kinda putting all these parcels of land together, which costs a lot of money and delay.

Uh, so if we already control the land and it's workable to connect high-speed rail at least from Buffalo to Schenectady, now we're, now we're cooking with gas, right? Then we can look for a private sector partner to help build out that infrastructure so that does not fall on the back of taxpayers.

And w- what we've talked about on your show before is, you know, companies like Brightline and others who are looking at domestic rail services in the United States have found a way to operationalize this and make a profit.

So they're motivated to work with a state government in making this a reality.

Um, Senator Cooney, you've worked on transpor- as the Transportation Chair, you've come on this program to talk about higher speed rail.

I'd say higher speed rail.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, it's not a maglev, but it's, uh-

[laughs]

... it's higher, um, higher speed than maybe people travel on Amtrak.

Um, what's the status of that and, and what do you think is achievable in the future that you would support?

So I'll remind, uh, your listeners and viewers that the average, uh, miles per hour or speed traveled on passenger Amtrak in Upstate New York is between 45 and 55 miles per hour.

We defined high-speed rail as rail systems that can go 125 miles per hour or more.

Um, what we have tried to do to advance the conversation is look at a new pathway or a corridor for which we could operate high-speed rail.

So I'm very interested in connecting Buffalo to New York City by high-speed rail.

Think about what's happening in Central New York with Micron.

All the suppliers that are gonna come around, uh, our neck of the woods here, and then in Buffalo, and then to the east, uh, of Syracuse in the Mohawk Valley.

What a huge opportunity to move people to these economic opportunities, to these jobs, uh, to support more faculty and students coming to our higher educational institutions.

It's a, it is a giant win in terms of attracting population to Upstate New York.

How do we do that? The corridor that I'm interested in studying, that I mentioned earlier, is the New York State Thruway, the I-90 corridor.

And if you look at models in Florida and models out west between Southern California and Las Vegas, they're taking these large interstates and they're putting tracks down the median or on the sides.

So we were able to secure $500,000 in the state budget, not this, not this year, but the year before.

Uh, we're currently undergoing an evaluation, we call it a corridor ID study, that the just- New York State Department of Transportation is working on to see if that is feasible.

If that is feasible, this is how we differentiate our system from California, which often gets mocked as being- Crazy expensive and delayed.

We control, through the New York State Thruway Authority, the land associated with the roads of I-90.

So we will not have to get all these, you know, permitting and, uh, you know, part- um, kinda putting all these parcels of land together, which costs a lot of money and delay.

Uh, so if we already control the land and it's workable to connect high-speed rail at least from Buffalo to Schenectady, now we're, now we're cooking with gas, right? Then we can look for a private sector partner to help build out that infrastructure so that does not fall on the back of taxpayers.

And w- what we've talked about on your show before is, you know, companies like Brightline and others who are looking at domestic rail services in the United States have found a way to operationalize this and make a profit.

So they're motivated to work with a state government in making this a reality.