Has US high-speed rail stalled?

Has US high-speed rail stalled?

Despite high-speed rail picking up speed around the world (pun intended), projects in America have yet to gather momentum leading many to wonder whether the US high speed rail project has stalled.

Infrastructurist editor Melissa Lafsky today reported that unfortunately it looks that way, despite billions of dollars being invested into the future of high-speed rail. However, it seems that high-speed rail's biggest threat is simply the federal deficit and as a result, high-speed projects may simply have to be scrapped.

At the Progressive Fix, Mart Reutter wrote that, "unless the White House acts forcefully and decisively to advance its transportation agenda in Congress, the president's vision for high-speed rail may get sidetracked by the looming federal deficit.

"That's the growing perception on Capitol Hill as Congress grapples with an infrastructure program that could cost between $22 million and $132 million a mile if developed along the lines of 200-mile-per-hour bullet trains now running in Europe and Asia.

"Unlike the health care debate, President Obama has been conspicuously unengaged from the details of how to move his high-speed-rail (HSR) plan from a one-off award program using Recovery Act stimulus funds to a dedicated multi-year program akin to the scope and ambition of the Interstate Highway System."

High-speed rail grinds to a halt

The news is a far cry from what was deemed a major victory for the high-speed rail proposals back in January when it was announced that assorted projects would see $8 billion from the Obama infrastructure stimulus bill, prompting many to speculate that US high-speed rail was truly gaining momentum.

However, it seems the money flow is dying. Congress has authorised that in 2010, US high-speed rail projects will only receive $2.5 billion while the year after, they will only get a mere $1 billion.

While assorted advocates and groups are protesting this, asking for more money it seems that there is no clear consensus on how to fund US high-speed rail. However, it is going to be an uphill battle especially with projections for California's high-speed rail system to be anywhere from $40-45 billion.

Despite House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar introducing a draft bill last summer, that added $50 billion to the surface transportation program in order to fund HSR over the next six years, this has essentially amounted to zero progress making the money spent so far on the project seem like an enormous waste.

Unless some form of private funding or transportation coalition steps in, plans for US high-speed rail could officially be dead.

Relevant articles:

California's $2.25bn high-speed rail fund | $8 billion high-speed rail funds to be spent? | China to aid US high-speed rail?

Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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