James Oberstar: “This is a proposal that really does have a thousand fathers. The distinguished gentleman from California (Mr.…”

“This is a proposal that really does have a thousand fathers. The distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) is an advocate for this initiative; I believe the Governor of his State is an advocate for it, as the mayor of Los Angeles is an advocate for it. I know the City of San Diego and their planning organization are for this kind of initiative, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach is an advocate for this. And I am an advocate for it. And I think that in this initiative we have found the ideal solution to intermodalism, to movement of goods, reduction of noise, of pollution, of accidents, of intersection of goods, people, and vehicles by adopting the maglev technology. This was an idea that I advocated well in advance of ISTEA in 1991. We got first funding in the ISTEA legislation for study of maglev technology. And then in TEA-21, under then Chairman Shuster, advocating experimental projects. It took years of development, but finally General Atomics, under contract with the Department of Transportation, perfected the technology. And then it was the Port of Long Beach/Los Angeles that said we would like to move containers with it before you start moving people. The ideal solution. I wish I had thought of it myself.”