In many ways, our country and our region have flown off the rails.
It is time to get Back on Track.
After years of under-investment, our nation's transportation system is failing. Our bridges are crumbling and our roads are congested. Delays plague our airports and our railroads cannot run on time. While other countries around the world are making critical, long-term investments in their infrastructure systems, on which their economic growth depend, the United States has continued to shortchange its transportation systems, constraining our nation's economic growth potential. And while Congress stubbornly debates issues like infrastructure and our national debt, over 9% of the country remains out of work.
The situation in the Northeast is particularly dire. As we struggle to pull ourselves out of the most difficult recession in decades, we must contend with aging infrastructure, some of which is over a century old. It is no secret that our passenger rail system is not working. Plagued by frequent delays and system failures, the Northeast Corridor (NEC) is in an $8.8 billion hole, the amount needed to fix the current system.
If we do not make investments, conditions in the Northeast are only going to get worse. Over the next 20 years, the NEC will need an additional $43 billion to accommodate projected growth in travel demand. Already, 750,000 intercity and commuter riders rely on the NEC every single day, and by the year 2050, the Northeast Megaregion will add 20 million additional people. Unless we begin work now to balance our transportation system by creating new capacity on alternative modes, our region's highways and airports will simply be unable to move all of these people to where they want to go.
Now is the time to get the Northeast Corridor Back on Track.
We must fix our current rail system, build new capacity for growth, and provide a new service that meets the needs of the next generation of residents, workers, and visitors in the Northeast. Specifically, we must:
- Achieve a State of Good Repair on the existing NEC,
- Create the capacity to meet the growth needs of all NEC users, including intercity, commuter, and freight railroads, and
- Construct a world-class High Speed Rail system on two new, dedicated tracks along the NEC.
To accomplish these goals, we have major work to do. We must craft a unified, implementable vision. We must develop the coalition of decision-makers and advocates necessary to transform this vision into a reality. We must reform our legislation to attain and sustain long-term investments in our passenger rail infrastructure. Finally, we must find ways for the many stakeholders along the NEC, at the local, state, regional, and federal levels, to stand and work together.
This post marks the first entry of Back On Track: Northeast - a new blog focused on tracking progress toward implementing a world-class high-speed rail system on the NEC, exploring the broad array of practical and political challenges, and making the case for fixing our existing passenger rail system and creating a faster, more reliable conventional rail service.
Back On Track: Northeast provides a common information resource that includes regular news updates on federal and state policies affecting rail service, spotlight posts highlighting key issues affecting the NEC, and valuable research on the need for and potential benefits of high-quality passenger rail service. Most importantly, Back On Track: Northeast serves as an online gathering space for supporters and advocates.
Our goal is to generate a productive dialogue on the need for investment, enable supporters to take action, and establish Back on Track: Northeast as the unified voice for advocates for better rail service on the NEC. By reaching new audiences and connecting advocates, we can expand and unify our regional coalition and successfully achieve high speed rail on the NEC.
About the Editor, Jeremy Steinemann
Over the next two months, I will be managing and growing this blog as part of a summer project with America 2050 and the Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility. I am a graduate student in the Urban Planning Program at MIT, studying the intersection of transportation, land use and urban redevelopment. If successful, this blog will become a permanent fixture and continue to serve as a forum and resource for a broad coalition of rail supporters in the Northeast.
Please join me in this conversation, by sharing your comments, ideas, and content. In the current political climate, the fight for infrastructure investments is more challenging than ever. We must all work together to achieve world-class passenger rail service in the Northeast.
Image: Map of the Northeast. Source: Pilot Portal USA.
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