Reconnecting America CEO Tells USA Today High Speed Rail Network Could Be Completed In 20 Years

Reconnecting America applauds President Obama’s award of $8 billion for 13 high-speed rail corridors from California to Florida with the goal of creating a nationwide program of high-speed intercity passenger rail service. Reconnecting America has long advocated investments in intercity and high-speed rail lines to reduce dependence on foreign oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to link people in urban and rural communities to economic opportunity.

Reconnecting America CEO John Robert Smith told USA Today that a high-speed rail network could be completed in two decades. “China is spending $500 billion over 20 years to do it,” Smith said. “If this country has the vision to follow through on the President’s vision, we will have the high-speed rail network, and we can have it in 20 years.” He added that much of the grant money will be used to upgrade existing track and signaling systems, improve crossings and do other work to prepare for high-speed rail, and that the important second step will be Congressional approval of funds to move the projects forward.

The awards will be funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and will include $1 billion a year for five years to help jumpstart the program as well as smaller investments for projects and high-speed rail planning initiatives in 31 other states. The announcement came the morning after the President spoke about the importance of infrastructure and high-speed rail investments during his State of the Union address. He said the $8 billion investment will put Americans to work in track-laying, manufacturing, planning and engineering, and rail maintenance and operations, and that it is one of a number of job initiatives he will lay out in the coming weeks.

Smith, who was at the White House last April when the President first announced his intent to provide the $8 billion, called this “a proud moment.” He said, “The President has taken an important first step in investing in a 21st century transportation system that is efficient, environmentally responsible, and that will help free us from dependence on foreign oil and the foreign debt we incur to buy that oil. I am convinced that my grandson will look back on this day and see it as a defining moment of change.

“The work that Reconnecting America does to help towns and cities prepare for transportation investments meshes perfectly with the President’s ambitions to create a transportation system that will be as important as the interstate highway and aviation systems built during the last century,” Smith added. “This is an investment that will help keep us competitive with foreign countries who are making similarly ambitious investments in high-speed rail.”

The administration had received more than $55 billion in proposals for the $8 billion grant program. The majority of the funding will go to developing high-speed rail projects in Florida, which is receiving up to $1.25 billion for a line between Tampa and Orlando with trains running up to 168 miles per hour, and California, which is receiving up to $2.25 billion to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco, with trains running up to 220 miles per hour.