Amtrak is “all in” on making the long-delayed Houston-to-Dallas high speed rail line a reality, according to a video posted on social media last week—and the plan has supporters even higher up the federal ladder.
Once upon a time, way back in 2022, it really looked like Texas Central’s grand plan to construct a 240-mile-long high-speed rail line that would haul passengers from Houston to Dallas in roughly 90 minutes was dead as a doornail.
Sure, the Texas Supreme Court had awarded the company the right to use eminent domain to get the project built – a crucial win since landowners in between the two cities have been battling the project for years now. But a day later the company’s CEO resigned, and it soon leaked out that the board had dissolved itself weeks beforehand.
After more than a decade of effort, it really looked like the grand plan to see the famed Japanese Shinkansen trains zipping between two of the state’s largest cities had come to nothing.
Or at least that’s what everyone thought until Amtrak – and Andy Byford, the Amtrak leader in charge of high speed rail — got involved.
🚄 America’s high-speed rail era is here! We operate America’s fastest train (Acela up to 150 mph) and see big potential for HSR beyond the Northeast.
Discover why we believe Dallas ↔️ Houston is a prime candidate for HSR, from Amtrak President Roger Harris and SVP Andy Byford. pic.twitter.com/4zoOe96p8p
Byford — who was dubbed “Train Daddy” by New Yorkers when he was running, and rapidly improving, the city’s beleaguered subway system — climbed aboard Amtrak back in March 2023 focused on making high speed rail a reality in more of the country. He quickly zeroed in on the Houston-to-Dallas project.
Why? “You’ve got to have the right characteristics,” Byford said in the video, ticking off how you need cities with large populations a good distance apart from each other, limited stops, few curves in the route and fairly smooth topography. “The one that stands out – and to be fair it was already being looked at when I got here but we’ve taken it to the next level – and that’s Dallas and Houston.”
Thus, last August Amtrak threw Texas Central a lifeline. The duo announced, via press release, they were exploring partnering up to examine finally making the Shinkansen rail line a reality. The partnership with the quasi-public corporation that oversees American passenger rail quickly produced results. By December, Amtrak was awarded a $500,000 federal grant to further study the project.
Since then, as Byford stated at the Southwestern Rail Conference in Hurst, Texas last month, Amtrak and Texas Central have signed a nonbinding agreement to further explore the project. Amtrak officials have been doing their due diligence about the actual state of the project.
“We believe in this,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said of the project while appearing on the DFW-based Sunday morning show, Lone Star Politics, in early April. “Obviously it has to turn into a more specific design and vision but everything I’ve seen makes me very excited about this.”
The following week, Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida issued a fact sheet voicing both governments’ support for the project during Kishida’s state visit. “The successful completion of development efforts and other requirements would position the project for potential future funding and financing opportunities,” the White House said, while both countries’ transportation departments hailed Amtrak getting involved with the project.
However, this isn’t a done deal. Amtrak plans to spend another 18 months examining the project – and the hurdles that still need to be jumped, including getting Japan’s Shinkansen technology approved and obtaining federal environmental approval. Only then will Amtrak actually make a call about the project.
On top of that, although Texas Central had secured about 30 percent of the required land by 2022, there’s still the other 70 percent to go, while Texans Against High Speed Rail, the nonprofit organization of mostly rural landowners who to oppose the project, is still decidedly against it, warning that “there is still a lot for the Biden Administration to understand” about it before committing to getting it built.
In other words, Amtrak hasn’t magically whisked away every issue the bullet train was facing before it got involved. But, at the same time, now that Amtrak and “Train Daddy” Byford are in the mix who knows what might happen or how far this bullet train plan may go.
Originally posted 3/15/23. Reposting 2/19/24 as this deal is back (Minor details have been updated below – spend is $2,000 this time instead of $1,000 last time, and no-fee card bonus is 12,000 instead of 20,000 last time.)
FNBO Amtrak Amtrak Guest Rewards Preferred card is offering a signup bonus of 40,000 points when you spend $2,000 within the first three billing cycles.
The no-fee card also bumped the bonus to 12,000.
Offer ends 4/3/24.
Card Details
Annual fee of $99 is not waived
Complimentary Companion Coupon, One-Class Upgrade and a single-day
ClubAcela pass for access to ClubAcela, Amtrak Metropolitan Lounge or First class
Card earns at the following rates:
3 points per $1 spent with Amtrak
2 points per $1 spent on all other qualifying travel and dining purchases
1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases No foreign transaction fees
5% Amtrak Guest Rewards point rebate when you book your Amtrak redemption
Our Verdict
Nice bonus for Amtrak users. The card launched with FNBO last October with a 30,000 bonus, and this is a nice bump to 40,000. There’s some speculation that dummy bookings – which historically have been throwing in $100 – will show 40,000 + $100 soon.
ALBANY COUNTY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — After two fatal train accidents over the weekend, railroad safety officials want to remind everyone to stay safe around train tracks. In 2022, more than 40 railroad crashes occurred in New York, causing three deaths and seventeen injuries, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. And rail passenger advocates like Steve Strauss, Executive Director of the Empire State Passengers Association, said the numbers have been worsening.
“The train speeds in the Albany area are among the highest in the state. Because Amtrak controls a lot of that right of way,” Strauss said. “People should never cross tracks except at signalized intersections.
The non-profit group New York Operation Life Saver provides safety courses for first responders and bus drivers from instructors in the railroad industry. Their website also shares safety videos on what a driver must do if stuck on the tracks, along with pedestrian safety tips. For example, pedestrians should walk on paved railroad trails instead of along the railroad tracks.
During his courses, Phil Merens, State Coordinator of New York Operation Life Saver, said he shares a sobering fact with conductors and engineers.
“If you drive a train for ten years, there’s a great chance that you…your train…will hit and kill somebody,” he said.
Merens said the accident would not be the driver’s fault since it takes a mile or more for a train to stop at 55 miles per hour. He also shared that even though about a third of accidents are from suicides, the rest are due to either a person being distracted while listening to music or being under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
“So by the time an engineer sees somebody, the only thing they can do is put it into emergency mode, and usually we’re sitting right by a crossing, and you can see about a ¼ of a mile in each direction,” Merens said. “That’s obviously not enough to stop.”
Railroad advocates share that the best thing the public can do when seeing any track is immediately think a train could be coming and look both ways.
“We’re in a modern age with precise engineering has made trains-they’re still incredibly powerful- but they’re much more silent, much quieter any you don’t hear them,” Phil Merens said. “You just don’t hear them until they are right on top of you.”
CASTLETON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (NEWS10) – For 30 years Castleton-on-Hudson residents have fought to be able to safely access their land. A railroad track separates the village from the land and on Tuesday a judge heard testimony from Amtrak and the public on how they believe residents can safely cross the tracks.
Residents want to be able to safely access the land on the other side of the railroad track. And their requests are in line with a 1994 New York State Department of Transportation administrative judge, who ordered the crossing close but it was contingent on the land near the river being made into a park that was supposed to be accessible to the public by tunnel….”until that work is completed it is necessary to maintain access to the crossing.”
On Tuesday, NYSDOT Administrative Law Judge Dustin Howard heard testimony from local residents who described the land as the beating heart of the community and they desperately want to reconnect it.
However, Amtrak officials say closing the crossing, entirely, is the safest option. Justin Meko is the VP of Operational Safety for Amtrak.
“Elimination is the, from a hierarchy of control standpoint, is the safest thing that you could do to protect human beings, and we have introduced elimination at that crossing in 1994. And even with that elimination there’s still been a fatality at that railroad crossing,” said Meko.
Mayor Joe Keegan said they are just as concerned about safety. “Lots of devastating testimony about safety, accidents, and things. And we hear what they’re saying. Safety is paramount for us, too. Their testimony is very compelling, but obviously our petition was compelling enough for a judge from New York State DOT to hear our case,” said Keegan.
Initially the NYSDOT recommended a tunnel and that was later found to not be feasible, due to the water table. The department then recommended a bridge to the village. However, the town prefers a ground-level crossing with safety gates. Keegan said it’s more financially feasible.
“This is our preferred option for so many reasons. We’ve actually asked DOT to provide us maintenance costs, input on to how a bridge would look, and it was always a one-way conversation. We would ask and they wouldn’t respond,” said Keegan. “It’s the village reaching out to DOT, asking to come to the table to discuss this and they would nod their heads and say, ‘Absolutely,’ and then they would never get back to us and they really just want us to go away and we’re not gonna go away.”
During Tueday’s testimony representatives from Amtrak insisted there are safer alternatives, but ultimately were requesting to close the crossing altogether.
“By eliminating that crossing, and not reopening it, I could prevent – I can limit the access. To reopen it, you open yourself up to the behaviors that were exhibited in 2018,” said Meko.
That 2018 accident was brought up throughout testimony. Thomas Brust was 27 years old when he was struck and killed by an Amtrak passenger train, along the crossing. Eric Rager was fishing there when it happened.
“It was a big loss, nobody ever wants to see that,” said Rager. He’s confident that if they had this type of ground-level crossing with safety gates in place at that time it would have saved Brust’s life in 2018.
“Because he wouldn’t have been able to go, that gate would’ve blocked him when the train goes by and he would not have been able to go,” said Rager. “Whenever I see somebody new down there, the first thing I say is this train goes very fast, be very careful.”
Keegan understands that many residents wish to access the land safely. Many are already doing so under dangerous conditions, climbing fences or going over a nearby crossing and walking along the tracks.
“And that is not safe and we’re trying to provide at least some safety measures that have been proven in other cities to work and reduce crossing fatalities,” said Keegan.
Public comments can be submitted until February 12.
Amtrak has launched a fare sale that can earn you a free summer trip after taking three Amtrak trips by the end of February. You must register for this promotion in order to be eligible to earn that free trip. Let’s check out the details and see how this promotion works.
Offer Details
Northeast Regional: Take 3 qualifying Northeast Regional roundtrips (6 qualifying one-way trips) from January 3, 2024 12:00AM PT through February 29, 2024 11:59PM PT and receive two free Northeast Regional coach class one-way trip coupons good for travel between July 1, 2024 12:00AM PT and August 31, 2024 11:59PM PT. Minimum spend of $25 per one-way trip on Northeast Regional is required for travel to qualify. Maximum of one Northeast Regional trip per train number per day will qualify for promotion earn.
Acela: Take 3 qualifying Acela roundtrips (6 qualifying one-way trips) from January 3, 2024 12:00AM PT through February 29, 2024 11:59PM PT and receive two free Acela Business Class one-way trip coupons good for travel between July 1, 2024 12:00AM PT and August 31, 2024 11:59PM PT. Minimum spend of $40 per one-way trip on Acela is required for travel to qualify. Maximum of one Acela trip per train number per day will qualify for promotion earn.
Must be an Amtrak Guest Rewards member and register for this offer online at Amtrak.com/123free to participate.
Members must include their membership number when making reservations for travel to qualify.
Free trip coupons will not be awarded for cancelled or refunded reservations or tickets.
Northeast Regional and Acela qualifying travel is tracked separately for each promotion.
A maximum of two free one-way Northeast Regional coach class coupons will be issued for qualifying Northeast Regional travel AND/OR a maximum of two free one-way Acela Business Class coupons will be issued for qualifying Acela travel.
Free travel coupons will be issued in March 2024.
Guru’s Wrap-up
This is a good promotion for those who ride Amtrak often. You need to register for the promotion first and then take three roundtrips (or six one-way trips) by the end of next month, to earn a free roundtrip (or two one-way trips) in July/August.
Amtrak has a promotion, offering up to 20% discount for Northeast Regional Coach and Acela Business Class when you book by December 19th. The offer is valid for trips from January 2nd to February 29th, 2024.
You can explore the Northeast with comfortable downtown-to-downtown service and connections with local transportation. You can visit Washington D.C., New York, and more. With Acela Business Class, you’ll enjoy more leg room, and reserved seats, on the only high-speed train in North America.
Valid for Sale: December 12, 2023 – December 19, 2023
Valid for Travel: January 2, 2024 – February 29, 2024
High speed trains have proved their worth across the world over the past 50 years.
It’s not just in reducing journey times, but more importantly, it’s in driving economic growth, creating jobs and bringing communities closer together. China, Japan and Europe lead the way.
So why doesn’t the United States have a high-speed rail network like those?
For the richest and most economically successful nation on the planet, with an increasingly urbanized population of more than 300 million, it’s a position that is becoming more difficult to justify.
Although Japan started the trend with its Shinkansen “Bullet Trains” in 1964, it was the advent of France’s TGV in the early 1980s that really kick-started a global high-speed train revolution that continues to gather pace.
But it’s a revolution that has so far bypassed the United States. Americans are still almost entirely reliant on congested highways or the headache-inducing stress of an airport and airline network prone to meltdowns.
China has built around 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers) of dedicated high-speed railways since 2008 and plans to top 43,000 miles (70,000 kilometers) by 2035.
“Many Americans have no concept of high-speed rail and fail to see its value. They are hopelessly stuck with a highway and airline mindset,” says William C. Vantuono, editor-in-chief of Railway Age, North America’s oldest railroad industry publication.
Cars and airliners have dominated long-distance travel in the United States since the 1950s, rapidly usurping a network of luxurious passenger trains with evocative names such as “The Empire Builder,” “Super Chief” and “Silver Comet.”
Deserted by Hollywood movie stars and business travelers, famous railroads such as the New York Central were largely bankrupt by the early 1970s, handing over their loss-making trains to Amtrak, the national passenger train operator founded in 1971.
In the decades since that traumatic retrenchment, US freight railroads have largely flourished. Passenger rail seems to have been a very low priority for US lawmakers.
Powerful airline, oil and auto industry lobbies in Washington have spent millions maintaining that superiority, but their position is weakening in the face of environmental concerns and worsening congestion.
Some of this will be invested in repairing Amtrak’s crumbling Northeast Corridor (NEC) linking Boston, New York and Washington.
There are also big plans to bring passenger trains back to many more cities across the nation – providing fast, sustainable travel to cities and regions that have not seen a passenger train for decades.
Add to this the success of the privately funded Brightline operation in Florida, which has been given the green light to build a $10 billion high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and Las Vegas by 2027, plus schemes in California, Texas and the proposed Cascadia route linking Portland, Oregon, with Seattle and Vancouver, and the United States at last appears to be on the cusp of a passenger rail revolution.
“Every president since Ronald Reagan has talked about the pressing need to improve infrastructure across the USA, but they’ve always had other, bigger priorities to deal with,” says Scott Sherin, chief commercial officer of train builder Alstom’s US division.
“But now there’s a huge impetus to get things moving – it’s a time of optimism. If we build it, they will come. As an industry, we’re maturing, and we’re ready to take the next step. It’s time to focus on passenger rail.”
Sherin points out that other public services such as highways and airports are “massively subsidized,” so there shouldn’t be an issue with doing the same for rail.
“We need to do a better job of articulating the benefits of high-speed rail – high-quality jobs, economic stimulus, better connectivity than airlines – and that will help us to build bipartisan support,” he adds. “High-speed rail is not the solution for everything, but it has its place.”
Only Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor has trains that can travel at speeds approaching those of the 300 kilometers per hour (186 mph) TGV and Shinkansen.
Even here, Amtrak Acela trains currently max out at 150 mph – and only in short bursts. Maximum speeds elsewhere are closer to 100 mph on congested tracks shared with commuter and freight trains.
This year, Amtrak plans to introduce its new generation Avelia Liberty trains to replace the life-expired Acelas on the NEC.
Capable of reaching 220 mph (although they’ll be limited to 160 mph on the NEC), the trains will bring Alstom’s latest high-speed rail technology to North America.
The locomotives at each end – known as power cars – are close relatives of the next generation TGV-M trains, scheduled to debut in France in 2024.
Sitting between the power cars are the passenger vehicles, which use Alstom’s Tiltronix technology to run faster through curves by tilting their bodies, much like a MotoGP rider does. And it’s not just travelers who will benefit.
“When Amtrak awarded the contract to Alstom in 2015 to 2016, the company had around 200 employees in Hornell,” says Shawn D. Hogan, former mayor of the city of Hornell in New York state.
“That figure is now nearer 900, with hiring continuing at a fast pace. I calculate that there has been a total public/private investment of more than $269 million in our city since 2016, including a new hotel, a state-of-the-art hospital and housing developments.
“It is a transformative economic development project that is basically unheard of in rural America and if it can happen here, it can happen throughout the United States.”
Alstom has spent almost $600 million on building a US supply chain for its high-speed trains – more than 80% of the train is made in the United States, with 170 suppliers across 27 states.
“High-speed rail is already here. Avelia Liberty was designed jointly with our European colleagues, so we have what we need for ‘TGV-USA’,” adds Sherin.
“It’s all proven tech from existing trains. We’re ready to go when the infrastructure arrives.”
And those new lines could arrive sooner than you might think.
In March, Brightline confirmed plans to begin construction on a 218-mile (351-kilometer) high-speed line between Rancho Cucamonga, near Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, carving a path through the San Bernardino Mountains and across the desert, following the Interstate 15 corridor.
The 200 mph line will slash times to little more than one hour – a massive advantage over the four-hour average by car or five to seven hours by bus – when it opens in 2027.
Mike Reininger, CEO of Brightline Holdings, says: “As the most shovel-ready high-speed rail project in the United States, we are one step closer to leveling the playing field against transit and infrastructure projects around the world, and we are proud to be using America’s most skilled workers to get there.”
Brightline West expects to inject around $10 billion worth of benefits into the region’s economy, creating about 35,000 construction jobs, as well as 1,000 permanent jobs in maintenance, operations and customer service in Southern California and Nevada.
It will also mark the return of passenger trains to Las Vegas after a 30-year hiatus – Amtrak canceled its “Desert Wind” route in 1997.
Meanwhile, construction is progressing on another high-speed line through the San Joaquin Valley.
Set to open around 2030, California High Speed Rail (CHSR) will run from Merced to Bakersfield (171 miles) at speeds of up to 220 mph.
Coupled with proposed upgrades to commuter rail lines at either end, this project could eventually allow high-speed trains to run the 350 miles (560 kilometers) between Los Angeles to San Francisco metropolitan areas in just two hours and 40 minutes.
CHSR has been on the table as far back as 1996, but its implementation has been controversial.
Disagreements over the route, management issues, delays in land acquisition and construction, cost over-runs and inadequate funding for completing the entire system have plagued the project – despite the economic benefits it will deliver as well as reducing pollution and congestion. Around 10,000 people are already employed on the project.
Costing $63 billion to $98 billion, depending on the final extent of the scheme, CHSR is to connect six of the 10 largest cities in the state and provide the same capacity as 4,200 miles of new highway lanes, 91 additional airport gates and two new airport runways costing between $122 billion and $199 billion.
With California’s population expected to grow to more than 45 million by 2050, high-speed rail offers the best value solution to keep the state from grinding to a smoggy halt.
Brightline West and CHSR offer templates for the future expansion of high-speed rail in North America.
By focusing on pairs of cities or regions that are too close for air travel and too far apart for car drivers, transportation planners can predict which corridors offer the greatest potential.
“It’s logical that the US hasn’t yet developed a nationwide high-speed network,” says Sherin. “For decades, traveling by car wasn’t a hardship, but as highway congestion gets worse, we’ve reached a stage where we should start looking more seriously at the alternatives.
“The magic numbers are centers of population with around three million people that are 200 to 500 miles apart, giving a trip time of less than three hours – preferably two hours.
“Where those conditions apply in Europe and Asia, high-speed rail reduces air’s share of the market from 100% to near zero. The model would work just as well in the USA as it does globally.”
Sherin points to the success of the original generation of Acela trains as evidence of this.
“When the first generation Acela trains started running between New York City and Washington in 2000, Amtrak attracted so many travelers that the airlines stopped running their frequent ‘shuttles’ between the two cities,” he adds.
However, industry observer Vantuono is more pessimistic.
“A US high-speed rail network is a pipe dream,” he says. “A lack of political support and federal financial support combined with the kind of fierce landowner opposition that CHSR has faced in California means that the challenges for new high-speed projects are enormous.”
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), urban and high-speed rail hold “major promise to unlock substantial benefits” in reducing global transport emissions.
Dr. Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, argues that rail transport is “often neglected” in public debates about future transport systems – and this is especially true in North America.
“Despite the advent of cars and airplanes, rail of all types has continued to evolve and thrive,” adds Birol.
Globally, around three-quarters of rail passenger movements are made on electric-powered vehicles, putting the mode in a unique position to take advantage of the rise in renewable energy over the coming decades.
Here, too, the United States lags far behind the rest of the world, with electrification almost unheard of away from the NEC.
Rail networks in SouthKorea, Japan, Europe, China and Russia are more than 60% electrified, according to IEA figures, the highest share of track electrification being South Korea at around 85%.
In North America, on the other hand, less than 5% of rail routes are electrified.
The enormous size of the United States and its widely dispersed population mitigates against the creation of a single, unified network of the type being built in China and proposed for Europe.
Air travel is likely to remain the preferred option for transcontinental journeys that can be more than 3,000 miles (around 4,828 kilometers).
But there are many shorter inter-city travel corridors where high-speed rail, or a combination of new infrastructure and upgraded railroad tracks or tilting trains, could eventually provide an unbeatable alternative to air travel and highways.
Amtrak is restoring service after a slew of train cancellations, primarily in the Midwest due to “a rail-industry control system that continues to experience intermittent communications issues,” according to Amtrak spokesperson W. Kyle Anderson.
The industry control system is used to connect to other railroads, Anderson said. Amtrak trains can operate on freight rail lines, so the trains have to connect to freight railroads to begin their journey – that communication was down.
The system issues began early Friday morning, Amtrak said.
On Friday, Amtrak began tweeting that several trains – many in and out of Chicago – had been canceled. Amtrak’s alert feed on Twitter was still announcing cancellations Sunday morning.
CNN has reached out for comment on how many trains were canceled.
Long-needed improvements are coming to train travel along the nation’s busy Northeast Corridor, thanks in part to the federal infrastructure funding package that President Joe Biden signed into law in the fall of 2021.
The president is making two big funding announcements this week to address bottlenecks at century-old train tunnels in Baltimore and New York City – two projects that have struggled for years to acquire enough money to get off the ground.
Construction is expected to begin as early as this year, though completion is years away.
In Maryland, the 150-year-old Baltimore and Potomac tunnel will be replaced with two new tubes for Amtrak and Maryland Area Regional Commuter (MARC) trains.
Running under densely populated West Baltimore, the 1.4-mile tunnel is the oldest on the Northeast Corridor rail line and the only way for certain trains to travel south from Baltimore’s Penn Station to Washington, DC, and Virginia.
More than 10% of weekday trains are delayed, according to Amtrak. Tight curves in the tunnel currently require trains to slow down to speeds of 30 miles per hour. The tunnel also suffers from a variety of age-related issues, such as excessive water infiltration, a deteriorating structure and a sinking floor.
The improvements are expected to nearly triple capacity in the tunnel and soften the curves, allowing trains to travel as fast as 110 miles per hour. There are also plans for new signaling systems, five new roadway and railroad bridges in the area surrounding the tunnel, and a new West Baltimore MARC station that’s Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible.
The White House said Monday that the project could get up to $4.7 billion in funding from the infrastructure law. Maryland’s transportation agency has committed $450 million. In total, the new tunnel project is expected to cost around $6 billion.
The project previously received $44 million through a 2009 federal stimulus package called the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act for preliminary engineering and permitting. But it had lacked a viable funding source to continue construction.
The new tunnel will be named after Maryland native and abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
Roughly 200,000 passengers make trips on either Amtrak or New Jersey Transit trains that run between New York and New Jersey under the Hudson River each weekday.
First opened in 1910, the tunnel has several age-related problems and also suffered damage when Hurricane Sandy inundated the tubes with salt water in 2012.
Still in early stages, the most recent plans call for the construction of a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River and then rehabilitation of the existing tunnel, known as the North River Tunnel.
In 2019, New York and New Jersey created the Gateway Development Commission to help facilitate the project. Last year, the commission estimated it could cost $16.1 billion and anticipated a 2038 completion date.
Funding sources are still being determined, but are expected to include federal, state, local and possibly private funding.
The White House said Tuesday that Amtrak, which owns the tunnel, will receive a $292 million grant from the infrastructure law to help complete construction of concrete casing underground on the Manhattan side of the river. The concrete casing will protect the path of the new tunnel from the Hudson River’s edge to New York’s Penn Station.
If this casing is not built now, the White House said, the foundations from the new Hudson Yards development would likely impede the path of the tunnel and make the project extremely difficult.
The $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure package was signed into law in November 2021 after receiving bipartisan support in Congress. It will provide roughly $550 billion of new federal investments over five years for everything from bridges and roads to the nation’s public transit, broadband, water and energy systems.
The funds are delivered in two ways: through formula programs that send money directly to states and through competitive grant programs that require state and local agencies to apply.
A lot of the formula programs have long been sending federal money to states on an annual basis but are now delivering much more funding for the five-year period covered by the infrastructure law.
For example, the Federal Highway Administration released nearly $60 billion to states last year through 12 formula programs to support investment in roads, bridges and tunnels; carbon emission reduction; and safety improvements. That’s an increase of $15.4 billion compared with fiscal year 2021, the last fiscal year before the infrastructure law was implemented.
Dozens of major, specific projects have been selected for funding through grant programs over the past year. Funding for the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant program (known as INFRA), which is meant for freight and highway projects of national or regional significance, increased by more than 50% last year. About $1.5 billion was released for 26 transportation projects in September.
In August, the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program, known as RAISE, released $2.2 billion for 166 specific road, bridge, transit, rail, port or intermodal transportation projects across the country. In 2021, the program could only afford to fund 90 projects.
The infrastructure law also created new funding programs, like the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, which released $615 million to states last year. That money can be used for installing public electric vehicle charging stations.
This story has been updated with additional information.
President Joe Biden and senior administration officials are embarking on a travel swing this week, showcasing what they see as successful measures to rebuild America’s ailing infrastructure.
In what’s been described as a preview of some of the messaging for next week’s State of the Union address, Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Cabinet secretaries are all hitting the road to highlight the implementation of the landmark legislation signed into law during the president’s first two years in office. Among those accomplishments are the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.
The president traveled to Baltimore on Monday to showcase the implementation of his policies, and later this week, he’ll head to New York City and Philadelphia for similar remarks.
The trips are taking place in the lead up to Biden’s State of the Union speech in Washington next week – a national platform where he’s expected to illustrate how his policies are successfully going into effect – and a prospective reelection announcement in the coming months. Biden’s approach is expected to be focused on touting the rebound of the American economy and taking aim at Republican proposals – while still underscoring his desire to work across the aisle.
In Baltimore on Monday, he discussed how the infrastructure law will fund replace the 150-year-old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, addressing the largest bottleneck for commuters on the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D C, and New Jersey. The new tunnel will be named in honor of civil rights leader and abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
Speaking from a presidential podium set to the backdrop of an American flag and an Amtrak train on the tracks, Biden recalled that he’d made a thousand trips through the tunnel and walked through it in the 1980s.
“When folks talk about how badly the Baltimore tunnel needs an upgrade, you don’t need me to tell you. I’ve been there and you’ve been there, too,” Biden said.
“You ought to get inside and see,” he remarked, discussing his tour of the tunnel decades ago. “This is a 150-year-old tunnel. I wonder how in the hell it’s still standing.”
“The structure is deteriorating. The roof is leaking. The floor is sinking. This is the United States of America, for God’s sake. We know better than that,” he continued.
When the project is done, Biden said, trains will roll through the tunnel at 110 mph instead of 30 mph, shortening regional MARC train commutes from Baltimore to Washington to 30 minutes.
At Monday’s project kickoff, the president announced an agreement between the state of Maryland and Amtrak, which includes a $450 million commitment for the tunnel replacement project, according to the White House. A project labor agreement between Amtrak and the Baltimore-DC Building and Construction Trades Council was unveiled to cover the first phase of the project. And he also announced an agreement between Amtrak and the North American Builders’ Trade Union “that ensures Amtrak’s large civil engineering construction projects controlled by Amtrak will be performed under union agreements,” according to the White House.
The program is expected to cost approximately $6 billion, of which Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding could contribute up to $4.7 billion, the White House said. Biden was joined by labor leaders, state and local officials, as well as members of Congress and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
On Tuesday, Biden travels to New York City to discuss how Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding will improve the Hudson River Tunnel, which sees 200,000 passengers passing through each weekday on Amtrak and New Jersey Transit.
On Friday, Biden and Harris are scheduled to travel to Philadelphia to discuss how Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding is removing lead pipes and ensuring clean water across Philadelphia and the country, the official told CNN.
According to the White House, the pair “will discuss the progress we have made and their work implementing the Biden-Harris economic agenda that continues to deliver results for the American people.”
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge will also travel to Chicago to discuss progress made to address homelessness as a result of provisions within the American Rescue Plan, according to the official.
While Biden has often embarked on domestic trips to highlight his policies in action, these stops have served as a significant messaging platform since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives this year.
He asked the crowd, “(Why) in God’s name would Americans give up the progress we’ve made for the chaos they’re suggesting?”
“MAGA Republicans,” he added, “are literally choosing to inflict this pain on the American people.”
Despite that heavy emphasis on his warnings about GOP plans, Biden this week is expected to hone in on his ability to work across the aisle to push legislation into law. Specifically, in a preview of the travel, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre underscored Biden’s “success (in) bringing Republicans and independents and Democrats together to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”
In Baltimore on Monday, the president brought up his recent trip to Kentucky, where he stood alongside Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to herald the implementation of the massive $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that McConnell and 18 other Senate Republicans supported.
The policy messaging trips also carry more weight as the prospect of a presidential reelection campaign looms large over the White House.
Biden has been working intensively on his State of the Union Speech speech – including over the weekend – which his team views as a launching pad for the reelection bid. His speeches around the East Coast week will offer a preview of his message as he touts new infrastructure projects.
Behind the scenes, aides are building up a campaign infrastructure and the West Wing is in the process of restructuring for a politically intense two years.
Peppered in between stops to visit projects funded though the proposals which were the bedrock of his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden will participate in events that are part of an intense fundraising push ahead of the campaign announcement.
The travel comes as Biden also contends with a number of simmering issues in Washington – House Republican probes, investigations into classified documents found at his residence and former office and the debt ceiling standoff. The US Treasury is already taking extraordinary measures to keep the government paying its bills after the US hit the debt ceiling set by Congress.
In the post-pandemic world, while many travelers have been obsessed with airlines, ground stops, cancellations and delays, Amtrak’s ridership is bouncing back — more than doubling in the Northeast corridor, and 88% across the country. At the same time, Amtrak was strengthening its long-haul services, with trains like the Empire Builder, the Zephyr, the Sunset Limited and the Southern Crescent, the Southwest Chief and the Coast Starlight, to name a few.
And while we don’t yet have true high-speed rail yet in this country — and may never have it — there are some improvements in the service. And why don’t we have high-speed rail? Because Amtrak doesn’t own its tracks. The freight lines do, and they have no interest in high-speed rail.
That may also explain why Amtrak doesn’t exactly own a great on-time service record — because their trains often have to pull over to a siding to let a 100-car-long freight train lumber through.
At the same time, Congress has never properly funded Amtrak to allow it to grow and upgrade and to be able to reinvest profits in its product.
In some cases, Amtrak has brought back the dining cars. But even more important, Amtrak has announced a major upgrade to its fleet, with the new “Amtrak Airo” trains — with more spacious interiors and modernized amenities will be rolling out across the U.S. in about three years. The cars will feature more table seating, better legroom and more room for all your electronic devices.
Until then, there’s some good news. Amtrak doesn’t promote it very well, and most passengers don’t know about it, but Amtrak actually sells a USA rail pass. For just $499, you get to travel Amtrak for 30 days and up to 10 rides. It’s a great deal — and children under 12 ride for $250.
And with new high-speed routes launching in several European countries in the past few months — Spain, in particular, has new options for travelers as train operators compete and prices fall — train travel in Europe is an increasingly attractive option.
The Eurail Pass has never been a better deal. It now enables rail travel in 33 European countries, an expansion from the initial 13 countries, with prices starting at $218. One Eurail pass for $473 gives you two months of train travel.
One caveat: you must buy your Eurail pass in conjunction with your roundtrip airline ticket from the U.S. to Europe. You can’t purchase it once you get there. And you can even get a Eurail pass that’s valid for three months.
Hundreds of Amtrak passengers in South Carolina were stranded on a train for 29 hours after a detour due to another train derailing, prompting several to call the police out of fear they were being held hostage. What do you think?
“I always pay the extra money for the panic room sleeper car.”
PONTIAC, Mich. — What was supposed to be a 5 1/2-hour rail trip from Detroit to Chicago turned into a 19-hour ordeal for passengers on an Amtrak train that lost power, leaving them without light, heat or running toilets.
Wolverine Train 351 left Pontiac about 6 a.m. EDT Friday. Some passengers were so frustrated that they got off the train well before it finally reached Chicago on Saturday, just after midnight CDT, MLive.com reported.
Amtrak has apologized to passengers and offered transportation vouchers, MLive.com reported.
The problems began west of Ann Arbor. The train stopped there due to the power problem, Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said.
Electricity on Wolverine 351 went out once the engine lost power, according to passenger Katie Kobiljak, 23. That also meant the toilets didn’t flush.
“You could use the bathroom, but it was like using a port-a-potty and that’s not great,” she said.
Wolverine 351 was then connected to another passenger train that was to pull it to Chicago. Kobiljak said there was a lot of stopping and starting as officials tried to connect the trains.
The train stopped again near Jackson, Michigan, for a medical emergency and was there for two hours without power, Kobiljak said.
Abrams said the passenger who called for medical treatment remained on the train as it continued to Chicago.
But Kobiljak had enough and exited at Jackson.
“So, I was on the train for nine hours and only made it like halfway through the state,” she said.
A brake issue caused another stoppage, this time in northwestern Indiana, not far from Chicago.
Then there was another delay due to battery problems, Abrams said.
That’s when Michael Bambery, 48, decided to leave. He had boarded at 7:15 a.m. Friday in Ann Arbor. He arrived at his hotel about 16 hours later after paying $200 for a rideshare to finish the trip.
“No heat, no electricity and at this point it’s dark, so no lights,” he said. “They were cracking glowsticks to give us light. The toilets are overflowing because you cannot flush these toilets without electricity, so it smells awful. It’s really cold and there’s just a skeleton crew on board.”
Some passengers were able to open doors to the train and a couple dozen got off, Bambery said.
“We’re feeling like we can’t stay on this train anymore,” he said. “We’re getting no information from Amtrak. Again, we’re cold, hungry, people need to use the bathroom. It smells awful. And a percentage of people are having acute anxiety symptoms and screaming.”
Abrams told MLive.com that “due to the lateness of the combo train, some passengers elected to safely detrain in East Chicago (Indiana) and find alternate transportation.”
“Despite our best efforts, there are times when circumstances arise that are out of our control,” Amtrak wrote in its apology to passengers.
