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| NEC › Issues › Transportation | ||
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Transportation
Over the years, the New England Council has taken a prominent role in helping
develop an integrated transportation strategy for the New England region. In
addition to advocating on behalf of Amtrak and federal funding for airports,
and helping ensure that New England gets its fair share of funding under surface
transportation formulas, the Council has also spent over a decade supporting
the efforts to increase utilization of New England’s regional airports.
More recently, the Council has been working with civic and business leaders
to re-establish a heliport in downtown Boston. The entire region would benefit
from locating a public use heliport in downtown Boston, negating the need to
land at Logan and use ground transportation to arrive at a downtown location. Perhaps out of all the issues the Council participates in, transportation can
best be approached on a regional level. As a regional organization, the Council
has worked together with all six New England states on the regional airport
initiative and recently sponsored a regional transportation summit attended
by over 200 political and business leaders from throughout New England to ensure
that as the federal highway and transit bill is reauthorized, it includes provisions
reflecting the needs of the region. There are two major components to the New England Council’s recent advocacy
efforts in the area of transportation. First, the Council has been actively
engaged with Congress to ensure that New England’s needs are taken into
account as Congress crafts a new six-year surface transportation reauthorization
bill. Second, the Council has been very active in its support of Amtrak’s
full funding request. Amtrak provides a critical transportation option for New
England, and its capitol improvement program must be funded to ensure that this
important transportation option continues to serve our region. Education:
Advocacy:
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