Amtrak reveals vision for East Coast high-speed rail

The proposal, which requires building a new set of tracks from Boston to Washington, D.C., is at the concept stage and has no funding plan in place.

By

Patrick Walters, AP

Tue, Sep 28 2010 at 5:16 PM

Related Topics:

Train & Rail, Alternative Transportation

RIDE THE RAIL: Gov. Edward Rendell and Amtrak President Joseph Boardman are seen during a news conference at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. Amtrak unveiled a $117 billion to bring high-speed rail to the East Coast by 2040. (Photo: Matt Rourke/AP)

Amtrak on Tuesday unveiled a $117 billion, 30-year vision for a high-speed rail line on the East Coast that would drastically reduce travel times along the congested corridor using trains traveling up to 220 miles per hour.

The proposal, which would require building a new set of tracks from Boston to Washington, D.C., is at the concept stage and there's no funding plan in place, Amtrak President Joseph Boardman said at a news conference at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station.

The project would likely use some combination of public and private investment and hopefully be phased in starting in 2015, he said.

The Next-Gen High Speed Rail line would have hubs in Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington and would cut travel times in half or better. It would reduce the travel time between Washington and New York from 162 minutes to 96 minutes, according to Amtrak. The travel time between New York and Boston would go from 215 minutes to 84 minutes.

About 12 million riders a year use Amtrak along the northeast corridor.

Under the high-speed system envisioned, the trains would be able to accommodate about 33.7 million passengers by 2040. Amtrak officials estimated the high-speed system would generate an $900 million more a year with the added ridership.

High-speed rail would not only help reduce congestion on the rails, but also in the skies, since it would be more enticing to passengers making shorter trips, according to Amtrak officials and others.

"No one should take a plane for a trip shorter than 500 miles," said Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, noting that the system would be comparable to service now linking European countries.

The new system would support about 44,000 construction jobs annually over the anticipated 25-year process, as well as about 120,000 permanent jobs, Amtrak said.

But it would be expensive — averaging about $4 billion a year over three decades.

In 2009, Amtrak had a total budget of about $3.5 billion, with about $1.49 billion coming from the federal government. It spent $655 million of that federal funding on capital projects.

Nevertheless, Rendell said, political leaders must generate the will to get the project done before current system is overwhelmed.

"It isn't a dream, it isn't a fantasy, it isn't an illusion," the Democratic governor said. "Can we afford it? ... We can't afford not to do it."

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Comment: 1

val laurent Oct 04 2010 at 1:44 AM

30 years from now?...are you kidding?....when developing countries already have them?...we need alternative transportation now,...especially when planes are delayed or cancelled due to storms etc..we have alternate route to continue travel...but if your project will take 30 years from now....not only will YOU ceo's maybe be dead...but when are we ever going to bebefit from it now?....are you waiting for oil to be too expensive in fifteen to go ahead with this project?...wake up lease by fifteen years

.... More

from now we will already have more congestion than we due now....this is not news....but despair!