By Ron Thaniel
October 4, 2010

Amtrak announced on September 28 that a Next Generation High-Speed Rail service could be successfully developed in the Northeast Corridor with trains operating up to 220 mph on a new two-track corridor resulting in a trip time of about three hours between Washington and Boston.

The concept plan states that at an average speed of 137 mph, a trip between Washington and New York City would take just 96 minutes, about one hour faster than today. For the trip between New York City and Boston, the average speed would be 148 mph and take just 84 minutes, or a time savings of more than two hours.

“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's President and CEO Joseph Boardman.

The Amtrak concept plan, A Vision for High-Speed Rail in the Northeast Corridor (NEC), shows that a financially viable route could be developed. Upon its full build-out in 2040, High-Speed train ridership would approach 18 million passengers with room to accommodate up to 80 million annually as demand increases in the years and decades that follow. Departures of High-Speed trains would expand from an average of one to four per hour in each direction, with additional service in the peak periods, and total daily High-Speed rail departures would increase from 42 today to as many as 148 in 2040.

With an investment of $4.7 billion annually over 25 years, states the concept plan, a major national transportation asset would be built to support the growth and competitive position of the Northeast region. Its population, economic densities and growing intercity travel demand make it one of the premier “mega-regions” of the world, and an ideal market for world-class High-Speed passenger rail service.

The specific High-Speed alignment, stations, maintenance yards and other facilities that were analyzed in the report represent only one of a wide range of possible network and service configurations that could be developed. The analyzed concepts reflect the study's underlying goals (i.e., aggressive travel time savings, station locations in downtown areas) and detailed preliminary planning and engineering assessments. These concepts would undergo numerous revisions, refinements and changes under more detailed study, and other concepts with different alignments would likely be further reviewed at that time.

To fulfill the incredible potential that High-Speed rail service offers the Northeast Corridor and across the United States, a new High-Speed intercity rail program must be included in the pending reauthorization of the federal service transportation law. This is why the Conference of Mayors is urging the Obama Administration, which is very supportive of High-Speed rail, Congress, and transportation stakeholders to support dedicated funding for development of High-Speed intercity passenger rail corridors – equal to the investment made a half-century ago building the Interstate Highway System. The Conference of Mayors applauds U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary LaHood's statement, made before the Conference's Fall Leadership Meeting on September 23, that High-Speed rail is President Obama's signature transportation initiative.