NPR reported on Tuesday, as part of their week long series on high speed rail in the United States, that the federal government has already received 278 proposal for rail projects from 40 states and Washington DC. These proposals are competing for the $8 billion (US) made available in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Tuesday’s report was divided into three stories, focusing on the Southeast, Northwest, and Florida, with the former including states from Louisiana to Georgia while the northwest project linked Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
According to the report, Florida has requested $2.5 billion (US) for the first leg (approximately 100 miles) of a statewide system stretching from Orlando to Tampa. They are hoping to be “shovel ready” in time for disbursements of the stimulus funding. NPR reports that Florida has been planning and working on a rail system for 30 years, indicating that it may indeed be ready to begin as soon as the funding is available. Florida’s department of transportation is also seeking funds to develop the next planned rail line which would connect Orlando to Miami.
In the Pacific Northwest, a high speed rail project hopes to link Portland, Oregon with Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. The cost of the system may be the biggest obstacle. The current 200 mile train ride from Seattle to Portland takes 3.5 hours. Improvements to the system could yield an hour of improvement, making the trip 2.5 hours. Transportation officials in Washington state are seeking roughly $900 million, with the hopes of reducing delays and improving the track.
In Alabama, the state’s 1901 constitution prohibits the highway department (the equivalent of the department of transportation) from spending money on alternative transportation. The southeast has been car-dependent for years. At one point the state of Louisiana considered applying for stimulus money with the hopes of creating a line between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, but decided to drop the proposal. Even the city of Atlanta, Georgia, which lies on two rail corridors designated by the Obama administration, has been slow to embrace the idea of high speed rail.
Without a shift away from individuals in cars, high speed rail adoption will be a difficult sell. However, job creation, access to major cities, and potential environmental benefits, as well as reduced congestion and accidents on surface streets and highways represent just a handful of the benefits that stem from high speed rail.
[image source: WhiteHouse.gov]
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