Source Notes 17

(Federal Railroad Administration, January 2002)

Summary:

In January 2002 the Federal Railroad Administration uploaded a photo onto its site describing ten high-speed rail corridors designated by Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century and the Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of 1991.  This photo describes the already operational line between Boston and New York City, and nine high-speed rail corridors that might or might not be developed.

Topic:

High-Speed Rail Policy

Category:

Institutional

What is it?

an image

Publication Information:

The image is on the website for the Federal Railroad Administration.  The image was uploaded in January 2002 in Washington D.C.

Author:

no author listed

Location:

http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/203

Accessed:

February 20, 2009

Support:

FRA, Federal Railroad Administration

Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of 2001, legislation to develop a national intermodal surface transportation system

Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, legislation that authorizes the Federal surface transportation programs for highways, highway safety, and transit

The FRA is the office of the Department of Transportation that officially designated the high-speed rail corridors.  The Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of 1991 and the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century are the pieces of legislation most directly related to the corridors.

Audience and Agenda:

By the end of January there were approximately 29,200 visitors to the Federal Railroad Administration’s website.  The majority of those visitors were male, between the ages of 18 and 49, Caucasian, childless, make over $100,000 a year, and have graduated from college.  They are looking for information about rail developments at the national and state level.  They expect articles, press releases, reports, full-text copies of legislation, maps, diagrams, and images detailing development of rail systems in the United States.

The Federal Railroad Administration payed for this photo.  Its budget comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation.  It’s reaching out to a nationwide audience interested in rail and other mass transportation developments.  It is trying to advertise the corridors that might be developed to generate public interest in what it is doing.

Usefulness:

This source is in a national context, focusing on ten high-speed rail corridors spread across the country.  This map gives a direct visual component to my should policy question.

This image was created by officials from the Federal Railroad Administration to advertise developments in the United States’ rail system.  If more people get interested in rail, their budget goes up.

It is trying to address a national audience of rail and mass transportation enthusiasts.  There is a decription for each separate corridor.  That helps generate local support if people visiting the site look at a map and find a high-speed train route running close to their town.

The map idoesn’t make an argument, but describes the designated rail corridors.  The page containing the image leaves out any other information detailing the corridors that were designated in the 1990′s and never developed.  There’s no reason to get anybody down.

With a general focus on all the high-speed rail corridors, this source relates to Source Notes 11.  Being an image, this source relates to Source Notes 23, Source Notes 26, Source Notes 20, and Source Notes 24.

Works Cited:

“Quantcast – fra.dot.gov.” Quantcast.  <http://www.quantcast.com/fra.dot.gov>

“Federal Railroad Administration.”  Federal Railroad Administration.  <http://www.fra.dot.gov/>

“Tea-21.”  United States Department of Transportation.  <http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tea21/>

“Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of 1991.”  National Transportation Library.  <http://ntl.bts.gov/DOCS/istea.html>

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Filed under: Institutional