Brightline built a high-speed line to connect West Palm Beach and Miami in Florida that will soon be connected all the way to Orlando. Private companies have instead spearheaded the effort to bring high-speed rail to the US. Existing infrastructure across the US has fallen into disrepair and battles with freight railroads prohibit Amtrak from being competitive on existing lines. We want to run more trains and we want them to be on time.'"Īmtrak is already spread thin in its languishing nationwide network. "From their point of view, they're like, 'Hey, we just want to run our trains. "Politically, high-speed has a different ring to it and I think Amtrak is probably unwilling to step into that," Mathews said. In congested regions like the Northeast, that means spending millions if not billions just to purchase property along the line's planned route. True high-speed rail would require new infrastructure, including straight lines of track so trains can achieve their top speeds. On the Northeast Corridor, where Amtrak has its only high-speed service with the Acela, Mathews said that it would cost around $50 billion just to get the line to a "state of good repair." That's 62.5% of Amtrak's proposed $80 billion funding from the infrastructure bill in just repairs alone and not even laying the foundation for true high-speed rail in the Northeast. "There's all these sort of boring infrastructure investments that you got to do," Mathews said. And unlike regional transit authorities, Amtrak's network stretches from sea to shining sea, leaving a lot to maintain and update. Read More: Here are 9 hurdles Biden's infrastructure plan would have to overcome in Congress before it can become lawīefore Amtrak can even consider a brand-new high-speed rail network, there's still a backlog of repairs to work through on its existing lines. "As recently as three years ago, Amtrak senior leadership was out talking about how routes have to make a profit and long-distance routes shouldn't exist," Mathews said, referring to the tenure of former Delta Air Lines chief executive officer Richard Anderson that saw Amtrak's most nostalgic offerings cut in a bid to save costs. Jim Mathews, president and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, told Insider that Amtrak may still be decades away from true high-speed rail and is still readjusting from an era of extreme cost-cutting. Not one penny will be spent towards building a clean-slate high-speed rail line even though getting America's high-speed rail network in line with those in Europe and Asia is a desire for many Americans.
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Rather, Amtrak is using the billions to give service to rail-strapped cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Nashville, Tennessee, and upgrade existing lines. Amtrak's fact sheet doesn't mention the phrase even once. The " Amtrak Connects US" plan calls for greater rail connectivity across the US with the addition of new routes and improvement of old ones in a major step forward for America's rail system.īut one phrase is notably missing from Amtrak's proposal: high-speed rail. Amtrak is getting ready to spend $80 billion of the federal government's money as part of President Joe Biden's planned $4 trillion infrastructure bills.