US has "third world" transportation system

Non-Left post

On February 2nd, California state senator Alan Lowenthal gave a speech at my campus as part of the Joseph P.Rizza lecture series, highlighting the gains made in reducing pollution from ports, giving us ideas as to the future of port systems (and the "short haul" transport that supports them), and criticizing the disadvantages California now faces compared to Canadian ports and the expanded Panama Canal and the "silo mentality" that causes them.  I'm sure the entire speech will be available on the internet eventually.

What struck me was that he said after cargo leaves our state of the art ports, it basically enters a third world transportation system.  Our rail infrastructure around terminals is so bad that its cheaper to send a ship from China through the Panama canal to the gulf coast (and then on to destinations in the South or Midwest) than it is to unload it in California and send it cross country.  This means that as shipping traffic is sent through the canal, money that could create transportation jobs on the west coast goes into canal fees and the sky as ultra-polluting fuel oil.

He later told me in person that our infrastructure around ports is and issue of nation-wide concern and the US Department of Transportation is not doing enough.  The responsibility for improving national transportation infrastructure should go to the federal government, but they don't seem to be doing anything.  Ray Lahood, current Transportation Secretary, was probably selected to add a republican to the cabinet and not for bold leadership.  It should go without saying that efficient, cost effective movement of goods is a key part of the national economy and should have national attention.