We all know the effect that levels of federal funding have on transit around here (and, obviously, around the country). One only has to look to the way that the Federal Transit Administration has handled the development of the proposed Purple and Silver Lines to see it – public services toyed with by the fickle madam that is federal appropriations. Without the cash from the Feds (however small that apportionment may be), not much seems to get done in the world of mass transit – it’s sad, but true.

That said, with Tuesday night’s conclusion of the Democratic primary season, we thought it might be a good idea to see where the two presumptive major party presidential candidates stand on federal priorities for transit.

Let’s start with Barack Obama. Sen. Obama has been quietly hailed as the candidate with the most forward positions on mass transportation. Of course, this really shouldn’t come as any surprise, as the Illinois lawmaker has been interested in the topic for years – he petitioned for more efficient transit through low-income areas of Chicago in 2003, and mentioned in May of this year that he’s had interest in copying the efficiency of the Northeast Corridor system in the Midwest: “One of the things I have been talking bout for awhile is high speed rail connecting all of these Midwest cities — Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis.” Speaking of Amtrak, Obama is a big supporter. He was a backer of the Lautenberg-Lott Amtrak bill in 2007, which would provide about $11.6 billion to Amtrak over the next six years. Obama’s energy and climate stance includes promises to “reform the tax code to make benefits for driving and public transit or ridesharing equal,” and to change the “transportation funding process to ensure that smart growth considerations are taken into account.” Obama also opposes a federal gas tax holiday – instead, he believes that high prices of gasoline should “give individuals much more of an incentive to look at trains and mass transit as an alternative.”

Of course, most of the recent Obama love from transit-types has come from his remarks in Portland, Oregon:

“It’s time that the entire country learn from what’s happening right here in Portland with mass transit and bicycle lanes and funding alternative means of transportation. That’s the kind of solution that we need for America. That’s the kind of truth telling that we are going to do in this campaign and when I am President of the United States of America. We don’t need gimmicks.”

Photo by albinoflea.