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I should post the text, the articles on Yahoo tend to disappear over time.
'PHILADELPHIA – 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."'
Last edited by missRoxyhart; 09-28-2010 at 07:48 PM..
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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There are a lot of places in the USA working on HSR. As of last week they announced it for Texas, California is working on it, the Great Lakes states are too.
Congrats to everybody, lets make this a reality first and then throw a party. My house in 2014, yeah!
So if Ed Rendell thinks that nobody should travel less than 500 miles by plane, then I guess that means people in Pittsburgh will have to hit the highways to travel to other cities because Rendell doesn't give a **** about improving rail infrastructure west of I-81.
I should post the text, the articles on Yahoo tend to disappear over time.
'PHILADELPHIA – 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."'
Now this would have been better use of stimulas money
40K jobs per year during construction and enhanced infrastructure for the future plus help to aleviate overburdened aiports in the NE of which corrider flights are fairly significant.
Personally I would love it; a 40 minute train ride from Center City Philadelphia to the center of Manhattan or just over an hour to the center of DC.
Honestly of any area in the US this makes the most sens for high speed rail
Last edited by kidphilly; 09-29-2010 at 09:20 AM..
Penn students create ambitious plan for rail service | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/11/2010 (http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_left_story/20100811_Penn_students__Amtrak_offer_contrasting_p lans_for_Northeast_Corridor_rail_service.html?view All=y - broken link)
Let's hope they will succeed, the Northeast is certainly the best place in the US for the high speed rail, and projects in California/Texas must succeed too because these places are very populated, roads and planes can't be enough !
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