Obama's Labor Day Infrastructure Speech

A few notes on this widely-quoted bit:

Over the next six years we are going to rebuild 150,000 miles of our roads--enough to circle the world six times. Were going to lay and maintain 4,000 miles of our railways--enough to stretch coast to coast. Were going to restore 150 miles of runways and advance a next-generation air-traffic control system to reduce flight-times and delays for American travelers.

A few things I like here:

• I'm glad he's talking about highway maintenance rather than expansion. We have enough roads!
• This is the first time I can remember a US president talking about railways.

Regardless of whether or how much of $50 billion actually gets spent, these are both hopeful signs that in the future, "infrastructure investment" will be more than a code for "build more freeways so we can turn more farmland into suburbs".