The press release, reproduced in full:

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Gov. Steve Beshear today announced that the Federal Railroad Administration has approved a $250,000 grant to study the feasibility of high-speed passenger service on a rail corridor that includes Louisville.

Gov. Beshear joined with Govs. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee and Sonny Perdue of Georgia in supporting a study of the corridor that runs from Chicago to Atlanta, through Louisville and Nashville, Tenn.

“Our goal, ultimately, is to see the national high-speed rail system revised and enhanced to include this corridor,” Gov. Beshear said. “We believe this would correct an omission in the nationwide network – especially in terms of a continuous passenger rail corridor from Chicago to Florida.”

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has changed its policy (2p pdf) to cautiously endorse Modern Roundabouts. The Modern Roundabout is an intersection technology like "4-way stop" and "stop lights". However, in some places it will outperform these older technologies in almost every way.

Says "Making Places":

It turns out that roundabouts may be part of the panacea for our greatest traffic woes. Across America, towns and cities of all shapes and sizes have been choosing modern roundabouts over antiquated signalization equipment and expensive grade separated interchanges. The choice of a roundabout, or a modern roundabout, rather, makes sense for several reasons: they have proven to improve the flow of traffic, reduce cost, improve safety, and enhance the quality of place.

The roundabout in the video is right here in Kentucky, at Norton Commons. I rode it and it was a lot of fun. I'm so well-trained to STOP at intersections, it took concious effort to roll through the YIELD sign the first few times. The biggest revalation was just how relaxed everyone was about driving there. There were no Leadfoot Louies gunning it for the lights.

Read More to Learn Why is there no Truck in this picture!

Since the early 2000s there has been no transit service linking Kentucky from East to West. It is not possible, for example, to go from Louisville to Frankfort.

If Miller Trailways has anything to say about it, that is going to change. However, they need your letters of support to make it happen!

Greyhound abandoned the last East-West service because it wasn't profitable. Congress decided that it wasn't a good idea to orphan all those small communities without any inter city transit, so they created 5311-f funds to subsidize rural intercity transit. Kentucky gets $1.8 million worth of funds, and currently doesn't subsidize any inter-city bus transit of note. Instead, that money is marked as unspent and flows into a larger pot where it is used to subsidize rural on-demand transit services - basically taxis, running with an end-user fare of about $1 per mile.

Read the Courier-Journal's special report on I-66 here.

In January of 2004 Dye Management presented their "Transportation Cabinet Management Review" which had been commissioned by the Legislative Research Commission. This is a comprehensive analysis examining all aspects of the Cabinets operations, funding, and management with specific recommendations to address problems.

Download PDF (8 pages, 600kB)

Contents:

• Midwest Regional Rail Initiative Study: Getting Transportation Back On Track
• Study: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's finds "a top-heavy bureaucracy, with no comprehensive vision and an unsustainable debt load"
• Chicago: Nature Museum Supports Rail Transit
• "TEA 21" federal transit bills "stalled and in trouble".
• KYTC Explores I-71 Corridor Improvements
• The State of Freight