We Must Develop High-Speed Rails for NE Corridor

June 22, 2010

As the Obama administration prepares to solicit applications for the next round of $2.5 billion in high-speed rail grants, serious questions regarding the success of high-speed rail in the United States continue to surface. Last year, the administration spent most of the taxpayer’s $8 billion in stimulus funds on expanding Amtrak services that will require ongoing government subsidies to operate and maintain. In fact, last year every ticket on Amtrak was subsidized $54.78 on average. The administration has failed to release the scoring on which the stimulus awards were made, or justify why true high-speed rail was left at the station. Most importantly, the administration ignored the private sector and failed to keep the awards focused on dense corridors that could actually support true high-speed rail.

Nowhere is the lack of investment in true high-speed more glaring than in the Northeast Corridor. This is, in fact, the only corridor owned by Amtrak. Amtrak continues its Soviet-style control over this vital transportation asset linking our nation’s financial and political capitals. Amtrak’s supposed high-speed service, the Acela, is an international joke. While high-speed trains in Europe and Asia speed along at an average of 150 mph or faster, Acela averages only 83 mph and is little more than a nice looking train that just makes fewer stops than the Amtrak regional service. The Acela simply doesn’t compare to any true high-speed international service.

Rather than partnering with the private sector to create a true high-speed service in the NEC, Amtrak has proposed spending about $16 billion in taxpayer dollars over the next two decades to achieve an average speed of 100 mph between DC and New York. This plan allows Amtrak to retain a complete monopoly for their antiquated government style of service, effectively shutting out the private sector and hijacking the corridor to keep Amtrak in the driver’s seat.

It is absolutely not in the nation’s best interest to continue with painfully slow and outdated passenger rail service to our densest population centers. We pay a high price to keep that corridor closed to innovative and modern service. About three-quarters of chronically delayed flights originate in New York, so the ripple effects of our lack of effective rail transportation in the Northeast can be felt throughout the nation. True high-speed rail is our best tool to reduce aviation congestion, as well as congestion on our overcrowded highways.

Unfortunately, 76 of the 78 stimulus grants the administration awarded under the $8 billion in the Recovery Act are for incremental speed improvements for Amtrak and do nothing to advance high-speed rail. Most of the projects selected are designed to allow passenger trains to operate only slightly faster while continuing to commingle with slower freight traffic. Much like their plan for the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak supports these projects out of self-interest — there is little doubt who will be the service provider in these new projects over routes where Amtrak currently operates. Even countries like Romania are privatizing their nation’s rail operations.

Amtrak’s hope is that the government will fund the full cost of the improvements, and then Amtrak will continue to run their highly subsidized, money-losing service, effectively foreclosing any possibility of innovation and cost competitiveness that the private sector could offer. And make no mistake; these higher-speed incremental projects can be enormously expensive, with some costing many billions of dollars.

Unquestionably, snail-speed rail and incremental higher-speed rail is the wrong direction for the nation because it will never result in the trip time improvements needed to effectively compete with flying and driving. We must focus on developing routes that provide true high-speed service, attracting the level of ridership needed to make the lines economically competitive. By partnering with the private sector to develop these lines, we can ensure we are getting the most return from the federal investment and creating assets that will yield a return for generations to come. If we do not start in the Northeast Corridor, shame on Congress.

Rep. Mica is the ranking member on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Link to op-ed in The Hill