America Gears Up for a Passenger Rail Renaissance

If it seems of late like there have been more headlines about passenger rail than usual, that’s because America is in the middle of another passenger rail renaissance — and this time it might actually happen.Projects getting attention include a high-speed rail in California, New York’s East Side Access project, and Texas Central’s Houston to Dallas Line, which have all reached significant milestones in their development over the past few months.The California legislature recently approved $4.2 billion in funding to complete a high-speed rail line connecting Bakersfield, Fresno, and Merced, the first leg of the planned 800-mile, $105 billion line between San Diego and Sacramento.The new project, which has already blown through its original estimated budget of $40 billion, is slated to be completed sometime in the 2030s, though skeptics see more delays in the project’s future that could extend the completion date.On the East Coast, New York’s East Side Access project at Grand Central Terminal was completed earlier this year and will soon provide direct service to Manhattan’s Grand Central terminal via the Long Island Rail Road, which serves 124 stations from Manhattan to Montauk on Long Island.The new service — opening later this year — will cut down on commute times to the east side of Manhattan from Long Island and should, according to the MTA, reduce rush hour car traffic between Manhattan and Long Island by 60 percent.The Empire State also recently signed a deal with New Jersey that will pave the way for the first phase of the Gateway Project, further connecting the two states.The new $14 billion funding agreement sets the project start date at 2023 and will eventually pay for repairs to the 111-year-old Portal Bridge and Hudson River tunnels, both of which are dilapidated but can’t be repaired because of high traffic and a lack of alternative routes.Down south, Texas Central has new wind in its sails after the state supreme court ruled in favor of allowing Texas Central, a private company, to exercise eminent domain to complete the project. The 240-mile high-speed rail line between Dallas and Houston is slated to be completed by 2026 and allow trains to operate at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, according to the company.In Florida, the Brightline high-speed rail line made its first run to Orlando earlier this year and will begin carrying passengers between Miami and Orlando in 2023. The line is currently running between Miami and West Palm Beach.Beyond these headliners, there are new passenger rail projects under way in Montana, Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Nevada, Illinois, and Washington, as well as plans for 22 intracity “fixed guideway lines,” meaning streetcars or subways. These include Boston’s Green Line Extension, San Francisco’s Central Subway, Milwaukee’s lakefront streetcar extension, and the Tempe Streetcar in Arizona. Buffalo received $54 million in additional funding for its above-ground metro rail project, Cars Sharing Main Street.Amtrak is also planning to roll out new long-distance service and connections between existing lines in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Ohio, and between Kansas and Texas, to name a few.The key factor behind the slew of new projects is money, at least according to the executive director at the High Speed Rail Alliance, Richard Harnish.“The money that was available for investment into intercity passenger rail was measured in the tens of millions until this year — now it is measured in the billions,” Mr. Harnish tells the Sun.This year alone, the Department of Transportation has awarded more than $368 million in grants for both freight and passenger rail projects and the infrastructure needed to make them work.All in all, the federal government plans to dole out $1 billion annually for the next five years, more than triple the funding provided in 2021.After declining sharply during the Covid pandemic, train ridership is recovering quickly. An Amtrak spokesman tells the Sun that nationwide it is at “about 83 percent of pre-Covid capacity” with future bookings reaching about 90 percent. The New York region has made a full recovery.Mr. Harnish argues that part of the reason for the recent uptick in ridership is because of high gas prices, saying “every time gas prices go up, ridership goes up to some degree.” It’s also because, he said, Americans simply like the idea of more choices about their modes of transportation.A look into survey data on the topic shows that, while most Americans do enjoy driving, they also feel that more public transit options would be a boon to their communities and the country as a whole. A 2020 Data For Progress survey found that 66 percent of Americans agreed that their areas would benefit from improved public transit and 77 percent agreed that the country as a whole would benefit from improved public transit.While new public transit projects appear to have broad public support, there are still those who oppose further development of America’s rail infrastructure.A senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Randal O’Toole, argues that high-speed rail is too expensive and energy-intensive for the United States and will not provide any economic benefit.“High‐speed rail is a costly and obsolete technology,” he writes. “It is slower than flying, less convenient than driving, and more expensive than both.”Aiming to be a global leader in high-speed rail is “like wanting to be the world leader in electric typewriters, rotary telephones, or steam locomotives — all technologies that once seemed revolutionary but are functionally obsolete today,” Mr. O’Toole says.Mr. Harnish argues that investment into rail infrastructure is a win-win, with robust public transportation options giving people more choices in how they move about.“Trains represent a freedom to travel more often and more productively and a freedom from expensive car maintenance,” he tells the Sun.

America Gears Up for a Passenger Rail Renaissance

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