In regards to the West Trenton line, it’s not HSR, but NJTransit is at least in the initial planning stages of restoring passenger rail on the line. Restoring Service to West Trenton would make a NY trip a lot easier for residents of the northern PA suburbs. Especially if they ever decide to run some trains straight through from Philadelphia to Newark.

It wouldn’t have the capacity, too many passenger trains in the way during the day and most of the night. Looks like they have settled on Jersey City to Brooklyn as the solution.

http://www.crossharborstudy.com/index.htm

passenger service through the lower level of Grand Central Terminal.

ARC is designed for service to Grand Central someday. They aren’t doing anything about it today because because it would come too close to Water Tunnel 1. When Water Tunnel 3 is completed, providing redundancy to the water supply, they can extend service to Grand Central.

220 MPH HSR, a layer of 110-150 MPH MSR (medium speed rail) and a wide web of commuter rail 80-90 MPH LSR (low speed rail); all those freight tracks and they are everywhere with speeds of 20-25 need to be upgraded dramatically (grade separations, signalization, double track.)

The ARC tunnel should be redesigned to include rail freight passage to Long Island & passenger service through the lower level of Grand Central Terminal.

Most of all we need to make a full throttle commitment to. transcontinental hsr (the crown jewel of our new sustainable transportation grid)- Jacksonville, FL to San Diego in 12 hours ; Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, Denver, LA; New York-Miami; D.C.-Atlanta.

The next layer is infill mega-region rail networks (discussed above.)

We need to bury domestic airlines (and interstate highway system) – just as has been done in Europe. Flying should be primarily for flights overseas, Alaska & Hawaii.

All this hsr needs to be fully bicycle accessible (bikes on trains) I understand ICE in Germany is making plans to retrofit train cars for bicycles. America needs to include them in the initial design.

Finally, the first rail-related infrastructure investment should be to fund the restoration of Michigan Central Terminal; Detroit is in tatters & nothing would create a more symbolic boost to the concept that America is ready to “rail.” than to restore this glorious disused & dust-bitten Motor CIty train terminal ( http://www.railtec.org/Site/Whats_new/Entries/2009/2/4_Rosa_Parks_Michigan_Central_Terminal.html ).

Not by much and Air-Line has a serious fault. There’s no rails on it.

But does it have to compete with the NEC? It has to compete with taking a train from a local station, Plainfield or Jenkintown, versus driving to a NEC station. It has to compete with driving from Jenkingtown to NY or driving from Plainfield to Philadelphia. . . start slow. Restore commuter service between West Trenton and NY. Run a few NY-Philadelphia trains a day each way during rush hour – during rush hour slow trains beat slower cars. When that works out, electrify the line. . .

I think I read that the Air Line is straighter than the Shore Line, but for the Acela project Amtrak decided to spend less and upgrade the Shore Line instead of putting in all new tracks, catenary and bridges.

There is a lot less traffic on the NEC than you’d think, because almost all traffic has to share tracks with some non-NEC traffic when entering the 2-track tunnel into Penn Station. For example, between Newark and Rahway, there are, I believe, 16 tph at rush hour. In addition, in New Jersey there’s still room for 6 tracks; the line used to have 6 tracks but has since been reduced to 4. Similarly, in Maryland, the line has been reduced from 4 tracks to 2, but there’s still room for 4. If the former capacity is restored, which should by itself cost $1-1.5 billion, depending on how much four-tracking Maryland needs, then the Acela will run on dedicated tracks from New York to Washington except near the major stations.

Cap’n Transit, the parallel rights-of-way have to be extensively repaired for high-speed operation. Even medium-speed operation requires more precise track geometry and more modern signaling than is available on American rail lines outside the NEC. Those lines are also less straight.