April 15th, 2009 | 
Reuters reports that the Department of Transportation will reveal its plans for the use of the $8 billion in stimulus funds to be devoted to high-speed rail tomorrow.
According to Karen Rae, acting head of the Federal Railroad Administration, the plan “will be broad and strategic” and will “talk about how we begin to create this new vision for high-speed and intercity rail.”
Obviously we’ll know more about the federal government’s plans tomorrow, but it’s relieving to hear that the FRA is going to put the numerous high-speed rail projects in context with one another – hopefully as a national rail plan.
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By Yonah Freemark on April 15th, 2009 | 
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Very exciting! Thanks for the heads up.
The FRA and DoT have some tough decisions to make, but hopefully with the vision the US needs to move forward on rail investments.
I think the most exciting thing about the quote is that they’re calling for HSR and Intercity. As if someone actually understands the difference and the need for both.
Thanks for the heads up, this is exciting news.
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE53F4DJ20090416
This reuters article isn’t very detailed about which projects will get how much funding, but it sounds like it’s going to focus on “up to 150 mph”, Acela-style fast trains. I’m a bit concerned, as this leaves unclear whether CA-HSR will be getting any investment from the stimulus.
Ah. Here’s an updated quote:
“The administration has identified 10 potential corridors, including proposals in California, the Gulf Coast, the Midwest and the Northeast.
Obama envisions a network of short and longer-haul corridors of up to 600 miles plied by trains traveling up to 150 miles per hour.”
Sounds like they’ll be working out which projects get how much funding later.
Ok, here’s the text of the speeches. I don’t think they gave us any new information, but it sure is nice to see that Obama and LaHood are 100% behind giving this country a faster rail system.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/16/A-Vision-for-High-Speed-Rail/
So who’s going to get the $$$?
We already know that there’s corridors set up and places want the money. I thought that they were going to announce where it’s going today?
I thought so too. But it doesn’t look like that’s the case. I guess this is just a summary of the strategy that the administration hopes to pursue.
If you look at the new “fact sheet”.
http://www.fra.dot.gov/Downloads/RRdev/hsrspfacts.pdf
It lists the 10 corridors identified for possible funding. But no word on who gets what.
More strategy documents and a map (that looks to me exactly the same as the old map) showing corridors are here:
http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/31
Details are here:
http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/31
Not much new, but good to see the top levels of the DoT and the White House are on this.
Which plans are formally approved? I know the Proposition 1A passed but which ones are approved already?