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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Amtrak Envisions High-Speed Rail For East Coast


Washington to Boston in 3 hours? Amtrak wants to make it happen.

On Tuesday, Amtrak 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 (354 kilometers) per hour.

“Amtrak is putting forward a bold vision of a realistic and attainable future that can revolutionize transportation, travel patterns and economic development in the Northeast for generations,” said Amtrak President Joseph Boardman during a news conference at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.

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, Boardman said.

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

GO HERE to read more.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the type of vision and ingenuity that will bring us back. I say have a rail connecting the entire business district of the east coast: Charlotte-D.C.-Philly-NY-Boston

Anonymous said...

2 things.
1. its about time. high speed trains are in use in europe and asia laready
2. keep public funds out of it. that will just increase cost.

Anonymous said...

as long as Joe Biden is VP Amtrak will get what Amtrak wants.

He was their main-advocate on Capitol Hill

you can bet this project is laced with pork and we all will pay for it

Anonymous said...

Great idea! How would you like to pay for it?

Anonymous said...

30 year project? High speed rail is being built all over the world at record pace. Make it a 10 year plan and it'll be acceptable. 30 years is entirely too long of a wait.

Anonymous said...

I wish they would bring the trains back to Salisbury. A train from here to Philadelphia would let us access the whole train system. Flying stinks!

Anonymous said...

10 years would be private, 30 is to allow for uniona nd goverment participation