A Passenger Rail Revolution?

Rail advocates have good reason to hope that passenger rail is seeing a resurgence in the United States, writes Daniel C. Vock in Route Fifty.

According to Joseph Aiello of the Rail Passengers Association, “2023 was a perfect storm” of efforts aimed at reviving the nation’s struggling train system and building new conventional and high-speed rail lines. “Going into a reelection campaign, President Joe Biden placed big bets on a few massive rail expansion efforts—particularly in the Northeast and California—while stoking interest in dozens of other potential projects in nearly every state.”

“Amtrak notched a significant victory as it fought freight railroads to better accommodate passenger trains,” and New York officials celebrated the groundbreaking on the long-awaited Gateway Project. California’s high-speed rail project, which has had a dramatic series of ups and downs, garnered over $3 billion in federal funding, while Brightline secured key approvals and $3 billion of its own for its Southern California-to-Las Vegas HSR line.