Thursday Headlines: Train Meets Canal Edition

The Erie Canal was a good concept, so why don't we try that again?

That's state Senate Transportation Chair Jeremy Cooney's (D-Rochester) thinking, and he said that high-speed rail could be a positive catalyst in upstate New York at Politico's Albany Summit yesterday.

"We can get a large number of New Yorkers going between Buffalo and Rochester and Syracuse and into the Mohawk Valley and then down to Albany and over to New York," Cooney said. "I always remind people, Toronto is now larger than the city of Chicago, right? ... We can better connect Toronto to New York City, and I think all the communities in between will benefit from that, but that starts by bold leadership at the state level."

He referenced public-private partnerships on the West Coast and in the southeastern U.S. that have had success realizing large-scale rail projects, which are often exorbitantly expensive. Cooney suggested that land along the state Thruway, for example, could be leased to private developers who would be able to skip regulatory steps because the state has already conducted them.

"I think that's the new model. We found ways to operationalize it and make profits on these that don't mean that we make the tickets so expensive no one can afford it," said Cooney.

The rail landscape in New York is tricky. Subway expansions in New York City can cost several billion dollars per mile, and affordable commuter rail can be hard to come by north of Poughkeepsie.

The Erie Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and slashed shipping costs. It also created a more direct water route from the Midwest to New York City, fostering increased settlement.

If Cooney's vision is true, another Erie Canal could be a new dawn for New York.

In other news:

• Streetsblog put on our reading glasses and looked around. There is auto insurance fraud in New York, but if it's happening at a rate that is distorting premiums, the numbers aren't adding up. See what we found.
• Well, well, well. Albany has tried to rein in auto insurance prices by attacking fraud before, and ended up raising rates while routing more money to unrelated law enforcement activity. (New York Focus)
• The growing conflict in Iran is exacerbating affordability concerns in Albany. (Newsday)
• Benevolent millionaires in New York are seemingly fine with "taxing the rich" if it creates a more just government. (The New York Times)
• State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Rowan Wilson is facing a complaint from Republican state lawmakers. (Gothamist)
• A man lost control of his car in White Plains Tuesday, with footage showing the speeding vehicle slamming into a building. (The Journal News)
• Gov. Hochul is looking to backtrack on the state's aggressive climate goals to the chagrin of some state lawmakers. (Politico New York)
• A scourge of fake license plates used by toll evaders are causing problems for the real plate holders across the state. (The Times Union)
• A federal judge blocked attempts to keep John Sarcone on as the top prosecutor in the Northern District of New York, yet he remains in his post. (The Times Union)
• Saranac Lake dropped a proposal to deploy the controversial license plate readers from contractor Flock Safety, as their data can be accessed by immigration enforcement." (NCPR)
• A 62-year-old man was charged in connection with a fatal Rochester hit-and-run of a pedestrian. (The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle)
• Democrats usually don't bother, but this year they are making the seat of former Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay's (D-Pulaski) a target. (The Syracuse Post-Standard)