Center for Public Transportation

Free Congress Foundation has established a Center for Public Transportation. The Foundation, which previously published The New Electric Railway Journal and a series of monographs on conservative and public transit, initiated the new center on May 18, 2009. The Center’s purpose is to generate support for public transportation, especially urban and intercity rail, and forging a non-partisan, non-ideological public consensus. The Center is made possible by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

In the mission statement released for the new Center, Free Congress said:

The Center is offering a re-balanced vision of the national transportation system in which rail and highway travel complements each other. Some journeys will always be more convenient by car. But Americans should be able to travel from any point in the country to any other point without using a car, if they so choose. They had that option as recently as the 1950s. By reviving it, we can ensure that America is not held hostage by crises in the Middle East or other oil-producing areas.

The Next Conservatism supports public transportation, especially rail, as a central element in the new conservative agenda. The Free Congress Foundation and Reconnecting America, a non-profit organization that seeks to integrate transportation with the communities they serve, jointly published a book, entitled Moving Minds: Conservatives and Public Transportation.