High-Speed Rail

While the House and Senate's Fiscal Year 2014 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bills differ in important ways (in fact, 10 billion ways), both are a far cry from the budget President Obama proposed back in April. The President's budget requested Congress provide the Federal Railroad Administration with nearly $12 billion to invest in passenger rail systems in fiscal year 2014. This would have been more than ten times the House's proposed funding levels and six times what the Senate proposed.

The President also requested $6.6 billion for a Rail Service Improvement Program that would "develop new key passenger rail corridors, substantially improve existing corridors [and] the Nation's freight network by adding capacity and removing bottlenecks." The House and Senate both proposed virtually nothing for the existing federal high-speed rail program or a new or modified program similar to what the President proposed.

The Senate is planning on taking up their spending bill next week. While the Senate's bill still leaves a lot to be desired, it is far more acceptable than the House bill. Joe Boardman, Amtrak's President and CEO has said that the Senate bill is "realistic" and "workable," but also says that "even at this funding level, there is a significant amount of critical backlog infrastructure work that will not get done. In order for the nation's intercity passenger rail system to reach its full potential, Amtrak will need higher and sustained levels of federal capital funding."

Mr. Boardman said funding levels in the House bill put "every one of our services at risk," including the Northeast Corridor, which he called "bad for revenue, bad for the economy."

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Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure convened in New York City on Friday for a hearing about the importance of the Northeast Corridor. The hearing took place in the Farley Post Office, home of the future Moynihan Station. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA), chair of the Railroads Subcommittee, wielded the gavel while Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), chair of the full committee, participated along with Ranking Member Corrine Brown (D-FL) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). The witnesses included the President and CEO of Amtrak, Joe Boardman; Commissioner of New York State Department of Transportation, Joan McDonald; President of Drexel University, John Fry; and President of Regional Plan Association (RPA) and Chair of the Northeast Alliance for Rail (NEAR), Bob Yaro.

The impetus for the hearing is that the current federal rail bill, PRIIA, expires this fall and Congress will begin negotiating the next bill this summer. The next federal rail bill will authorize a five to six years worth of appropriations for the Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak, and hence capital improvements to the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The FRA's High-Speed & Intercity Passenger Rail Program is a potential source of future funding for NEC improvements. After Florida Governor Rick Scott rejected $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail funds in 2011, nearly $1 billion was redirected to the Northeast. Amtrak's federal funding for capital improvements is also largely dedicated to the NEC, where nearly 40% of their capital budget is spent.

In his testimony before the Committee, Bob Yaro outlined the main components of an improvement program that can be authorized in the reauthorization of the rail bill. RPA calls this program, "NEC Now." The NEC Now proposal addresses the corridor's highest-priority infrastructure needs: to remove bottlenecks, increase capacity, improve reliability and reduce travel times along the entire corridor. It also proposes funding for the construction of a high-speed bypass in New Jersey for express trains to overtake local trains on a segment with heavy NJ Transit commuter rail traffic, would cut trip times between New York and Philadelphia to well under an hour.

Download RPA's NEC Now Legislative Proposal & Infrastructure Program.

Download Bob Yaro's testimony as prepared.

The Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility has officially been renamed, The Northeast Alliance for Rail (NEAR). The new name more clearly describes the work that the coalition does - it is no longer just a business alliance, as many civic and planning groups are active members, and our advocacy work is now more focused on passenger rail investments in the Northeast Megaregion, as opposed to broader mobility. The Northeast Alliance's new acronym, "NEAR," speaks to the proximity created by investments in passenger rail that reduce trip times between major urban hubs, and the hope that these investments will be made in the near-term.

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On Monday, Amtrak released an updated report on improving the Northeast Corridor that builds off of several years of planning work. The report, The Amtrak Vision for the Northeast Corridor (PDF), summarizes Amtrak's plans to upgrade the existing corridor and build a new high-speed rail alignment - concepts that were outlined in two previous reports published by Amtrak in 2010, The Northeast Corridor Infrastructure Master Plan and A Vision for High-Speed Rail in the Northeast Corridor. This new, updated report revises and integrates these two plans into a single, comprehensive investment program.

While high-speed rail has struggled to secure adequate financing in the U.S., in Britain, the government has given the green light to begin construction on the country's second bullet train. The U.K. government's decision to move forward with the controversial project offers important lessons as the U.S. pursues its own high-speed rail corridors in California and the Northeast.

The first phase of a Northeast Corridor high-speed rail project should connect New York and Philadelphia, Bob Yaro, president of Regional Plan Association, told the audience at a forum on high-speed rail in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

High-speed rail would cut travel times to 34 minutes between New York Penn Station and a new, high-speed rail station in downtown Philadelphia at Market East. This new station would be strategically located at the center of the largest job cluster in the Greater Philadelphia region. This phase of the project would require two new dedicated tracks, new railroad cars, and new tunnels under the Hudson River west of Manhattan and under Center City Philadelphia.

Amtrak recently announced the creation of a new business line, or division, Northeast Corridor Infrastructure and Investment Development, that will be solely devoted to all of the funding, policy, and planning decisions specifically related to improving the existing rail infrastructure and the development of a world-class, high-speed rail service on the NEC. This new business line will consolidate all of Amtrak's current high-speed rail development efforts under this new division. The new business line will be headed up by Stephen Gardner, who was previously Amtrak Vice President of Policy and Development.

This summer, Amtrak released a new strategic plan that lays out the goals of the NEC Development business line. It will be responsible for managing all of the station assets, planning, designing, and engineering new infrastructure, coordinating maintenance and construction, managing and growing the current capacity, and controlling all dispatching services for all railroad operations on the Northeast Corridor. One of the divisions priorities will be to manage Amtrak's investments in high-speed rail technology on the Corridor.

Last year, Amtrak published a vision document that broadly outlined its plans for developing a next generation high-speed rail service in the Northeast Corridor. These new, high-speed trains would be capable of moving Amtrak passengers between New York and Washington, DC in 96 minutes, and New York and Boston in 83 minutes. Both of these trips take over 3 hours by airplane and over 4 by car in good traffic. This vision plan estimated that it could take up to 30 years and cost $117 billion to implement this next generation service on the country's premier rail corridor.

Amtrak also announced that they would release an update to this plan by the end of the year, which is expected to include "new analysis of the conceptual alignment, ridership, revenue, operations and maintenance costs projections, and capital investment needs." It will also proposed a phased implementation plan that will include incremental upgrades to existing infrastructure, capacity improvements, and of course constructing new track, signal, and electrical infrastructure for the high-speed rail service.

Empire Corridor Project Map
In September, the U.S. DOT reached an agreement with the New York State DOT, Amtrak, and CSX and released the $149.3 million that was awarded to make improvements to passenger rail service on the Empire Corridor. The funds will be used to upgrade service, reduce delays, and improve reliability on this corridor, which is used by several Amtrak routes, including the Empire Service, Lake Shore Limited, Maple Leaf, Adirondack, and Ethan Allen Express.

These funds represent two ARRA grants that were awarded through the FRA's High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program:

1) Empire Corridor Capacity Improvements - $58.1 million
These funds will be used by NYSDOT for final design and construction of the three interrelated upgrades to the Empire Corridor around the Albany-Rensselaer and Schenectady stations. A fourth track will be constructed at the Albany-Rensselaer station to relieve one of the most significant bottlenecks on the corridor. Tracks and turnouts at this station will also be upgraded and realigned to improve reliability, and signal wires on the Hudson Line will be relocated. Finally, Schenectady Station will be completely replaced as part of a broader, downtown revitalization
program.

2) Empire Corridor South: Albany to Schenectady 2nd Track - $91.2 million
NYSDOT will use these funds to add a second mainline track between Albany-Rensselaer and Schenectady stations, where there is currently only one track. This 17-mile stretch, along with several interlockings, represents a significant bottleneck on the corridor. If a train approaches while another train is using the rail line in the opposing direction, it can be forced to wait for up to 26 minutes for the line to clear. NYSDOT will also upgrade existing warning signs, automatic flashers, gates and predictors at grade crossings along this segment of the corridor.

View Empire Corridor HSIPR Projects in a larger map

Both of these grants and their associated improvements will allow for increased speeds and reduced trip times, and improved reliability along the corridor. Reconstructing Schenectady Station will also improve transit and pedestrian connectivity in downtown Schenectady. Construction on all of these projects is expected to begin next summer.

"These unprecedented investments, using American made materials, will improve passenger travel while creating good-paying jobs," said U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood in a press release Friday. "President Obama's bold vision for passenger rail will change transportation in New York and the United States, helping relieve congestion on our roadways and reducing our dependence on foreign oil."

Images: NYS DOT