Somer Mathis, interviewing transportation secretary Ray LaHood for the Atlantic Cities:
You’ve also predicted that 25 years from now, 80 percent of the United States will be connected by rail.
That’s the plan.
Twenty-five years isn’t that long from now.
No, I know it’s not. And it’s a good plan. It’s the president’s plan. That’s the kind of vision that Eisenhower had about the interstates. And we’ve gone through a lot of presidents and a lot of Congresses and a lot of governors, and we built the interstates. I hope we continue to have people of vision that will carry out this idea that the country will be connected [by rail].