High-speed rail in America has been boosted by funds of £6billion being allocated as part of President Obama’s initiative to stimulate the economy out of recession. His administration also plans to direct around £700million into high-speed rail each year.
The country's inter-city rail operator Amtrak was also awarded £1billion, on top of its normal funding from the federal government.
Another £6billion is going for “mass transit” which is mainly bus-based public transport but includes some commuter light rail and heavy rail projects.
Amtrak’s “stimulus” funds will be spent on safety, mostly for Northeast Corridor tunnel work (£385million) and on other capital projects (£600million).
Amtrak also plans to repair over 100 mothballed carriages with some of its stimulus money.
There has been a lot of misinformation concerning high-speed rail funding, according to the Louisiana Association of Railroad Passengers.
It says several Republican senators, along with Louisiana Governor Jindal, attacked the high-speed funding.
However, it says the impetus for the rail funding came directly from President Obama.
High-speed rail in America is defined as 110mph and above – so real, incremental improvements can be made to many existing inter-state services instead of building all-new and very expensive 200mph railroads.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has a short time to decide how to spend the high-speed rail money and there are several corridors that are eligible, including the Gulf Coast corridor from Houston to New Orleans and Mobile and also New Orleans to Birmingham/Atlanta.
The Chicago Hub corridor is expected to get a large chunk of the money as both President Obama and Ray LaHood are from Illinois.
The Chicago Hub radiates from Chicago in nearly every direction (Minneapolis, St Louis/Kansas City, Indianapolis to Louisville and Cincinnati/Columbus/Cleveland, Toledo/Cleveland, and Detroit) and this is perhaps the most “shovel ready” of all the corridors.
The state of Illinois has also been a strong supporter of passenger rail, nearly doubling its funding of Amtrak intra-state trains.
Another strong possibility is an extension of the north-east corridor to Richmond, Virginia.
It is now clear that passenger rail is going to be an important element in President Obama’s administration and President Obama is the first president to make the link between energy independence and rail funding.
Ross Capon, president of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, said: President Obama and the US Congress deserve high praise for producing legislation that – by properly recognising the value of passenger and freight trains – finally begins to move transportation policy in a genuinely new direction.
“With passenger rail a conspicuous beneficiary of the House-Senate conference, we are especially pleased to acknowledge reports that this was partly due to the personal involvement of President Obama and Senate majority leader Harry Reid.”
Information from the Louisiana Association of Railroad Passengers. www.larprail.org and National Association of Railroad Passengers www.narprail.org