The U.S. Department of Transportation will begin accepting expressions of interest to finance, design, build, operate and maintain high-speed trains on the Northeast Corridor and in 10 other federally designated corridors around the nation. The development was announced at a Dec. 15 event in New York City's Penn Station by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Delaware Congressman Mike Castle and New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney were in attendance, as well as Florida Congressman John Mica, ranking member on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Peters praised Mica’s “persistence in Congress” for the “the significant rail announcement.” Peters framed the initiative as a way to “cut congestion, reduce travel and commute times and preserve our environment.”

hours or cutting your trip time by 25 percent between New York City and Boston,” Peters said. “Or imagine new passenger rail service on high-speed corridors between other major cities across the country. We want to know if and where it can be done -- and we want to know how to make it affordable. Americans need new ways of traveling between major cities, and a properly structured intercity passenger rail system can and must play a larger role in our nation’s transportation future.

“In the past year, we have seen Americans driving significantly fewer miles, and we have seen ridership on trains increase,” Peters continued. “Just last week, we announced data showing Americans drove more than 100 billion fewer miles between November 2007 and October 2008 than during the same period a year earlier. There is growing interest in intercity passenger rail as an alternative to driving and flying, but for it to really work, it must be viable, efficient and competitive. Such a system would offer public benefits all of us would like to see -- reduced demand on congested highways, reduced fossil fuel emissions and decreased fuel consumption.”

Peters also noted that “any workable high-speed rail proposal will require a combination of public and private participation. We have seen private financing for highway and port projects make the impossible possible -- and it can be the same for intercity passenger rail.” The Transportation Department will review proposals when they are submitted, and promises to keep “the process moving forward so Congress has the resources and information it needs to make future funding decisions.” A full copy of the Federal Register notice is at www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2008-29795_PI.pdf. For more information, visit www.dot.gov.  

Reader Comments

It will be great to have high speed rail. America is so far behind Europe in this respect. Time to catch up!Aliki, PA

I returned on 5 December from five days of riding around Switzerland on about 30 separate trains to Zermatt, Zurich, St.Moritz, Interlaken, and Lucerne. Although I had a first class train pass, the difference between the 2nd and 1st class cars was negligible except for the width of the seats. Trains ran on time and even connection times of five minutes or less were of no concern. Even if one were to miss a train, there'd be another one in less than an hour. Our country must move away from cars and towards trains AND light rail. David, MD

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