WASHINGTON: The US government awarded two billion dollars in funding Monday for high-speed rail projects including production of ‘next-generation’ passenger trains and improvement of the country's busy northeast corridor.
The unprecedented investment ‘will help ensure America is equipped to win the future with the fastest, safest and most efficient transportation network in the world,’ Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement.
President Barack Obama has highlighted the need to spend billions to develop high-speed railways in key corridors to sustain the country's economic recovery and boost the competitiveness of the country's infrastructure.
Vice President Joe Biden, who during his years in the US Senate regularly commuted by rail from his home state of Delaware to the capital Washington, hailed the projects aimed at transforming the US rail system.
They will ‘put thousands of Americans to work, save hundreds of thousands of hours for American travelers every year, and boost US manufacturing by investing hundreds of millions of dollars in next-generation, American-made locomotives and railcars,’ he said.
The Transportation Department selected 15 states and national rail operator Amtrak to receive $2.02 billion for 22 intercity rail projects, part of a plan to connect 80 percent of Americans to high-speed rail within 25 years.
Some $795 million will go toward improving the Northeast Corridor, the country's busiest, linking Washington, New York and Boston. The projects are expected to boost the corridor's top speeds in some segments to 160 miles (257 kilometers) per hour from the present 135 mph (217 kph).
Just over $404 million is to be used to expand high-speed rail in the US Midwest, and $336 million for ‘state-of-the-art locomotives and rail cars for California and the Midwest,’ the statement said.
Some $300 million will go towards California's key Central Valley project, a Los Angeles-San Francisco route that is expected to be the nation's first 220-mph (355 kph) rail system.
The funds were awarded two months after a plan for a high-speed railway in Florida heralded by the White House was killed by the state's governor, who cited the burden of potential cost overruns for the $2.7-billion, 84-mile (135-kilometer) track link between Tampa and Orlando.
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