SUPERTRAIN

Posted by on . 3 comments.

It begins:

Congressional transportation leaders plan to announce today that the federal government is seeking contractors to build a new $30 billion to $40 billion high-speed rail line between Washington and New York that would be used exclusively by passenger trains.

Amtrak‘s current Northeast Corridor rail line is shared with freight and commuter trains, which can significantly increase the length of time it takes for passengers to arrive at their destinations.

This is part of some cool legislation Congress passed a few months ago. Step one is upgrades to existing corridors and very preliminary work on high speed corridors. Step two is…up in the air at the moment, but if this Congress can pass this bill, one suspects that the next one can do a bit better.

Comments

  1. Doug says:
    December 15, 2008 at 6:45 pm

    $30 to $40 billion means $70B, right?

  2. Daniel says:
    December 15, 2008 at 7:29 pm

    So implementing a national HSR system would have to be gradual?

  3. James says:
    December 16, 2008 at 10:57 am

    I’m really excited to see the ball begin to roll on this… like 5 year old on Christmas eve excited. However, $30-$40 billion will be just a drop in the bucket of the total project cost for this thing. The takings necessary to secure the right of ways for track straight enough to allow the trains to maintain high speed will be dreadfully expensive, and it won’t be the type of expenditures that put people to work (except land use attorneys). It’ll be a fangs out deathmatch in small municipality after small municipality to get those corridors laid out, for sure.