Amtrak Joe delivers.The Senate is expected to approve a bipartisan infrastructure bill. It contains $66 billion to fund intercity rail. This is close to the $80billion President Joe Biden requested in April. It is the largest passenger rail investment since Amtrak was founded 50 years ago, according to the White House.Amtrak will receive $22 billion in grants and Amtrak will receive $24 billion to support the Northeast Corridor. An additional $20 billion is available for intercity service, safety grants and grade crossing improvements. What is the difference in the grants for the first and last chunks? This information has not been provided by the White House.AdvertisementThis will result in Amtrak services being more frequent on high-traffic routes like PortlandSeattle and RichmondD.C. (relatively speaking). This could mean that Amtrak will offer new service to fast-growing areas, such as between Atlanta and Charlotte or Atlanta and Nashville.AdvertisementAdvertisementIt is hoped that it won't require large investments in intercity railroad between Wichita, Oklahoma City or Cheyenne, Pueblo. Sorry, this is not a priority.As it should, the biggest item is money for the Northeast Corridor, which not only provides the best service, but also generates the most revenue. The country's most densely populated area is that between Washington and Boston. It is home to one fifth of the U.S. workforce, and the country's economy would rank fifth in the world.AdvertisementIt is also home to Amtrak's most efficient route, but it needs better. The Northeast high-speed rail system is slower and more costly than its international counterparts. This can be seen by the congestion of highways and busy intercity bus services as well as short-haul plane shuttles.It is possible that the $24 billion allocated to the Northeast Corridor includes money for the Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel, which has been dubbed the greatest bottleneck on the route. It also gives the green light for a second tunnel under Hudson River to Manhattan. This tunnel has been a priority in the region for over two decades, but became more urgent after Superstorm Sandy caused the tunnel to be flooded with saltwater. This tunnel is part the Gateway Project, which also includes several bridges in New Jersey. This bill funds Gateway. NJ.com spoke with Tom Malinowski (a New Jersey Democrat who is a member of the House Transportation Committee) about his final decision.AdvertisementThis is great. The Northeast Corridor needs real high-speed rail service. Not a series or small upgrades that cut down on trip times. This investment should make a difference in the Boston-to Washington air travel market.Do you find this funny money? You are not the only one.Instead, $24Billion barely covers the cost of the Gateway program ($22Billion), and that's before you consider the $11B Amtrak plans to expand Penn Station in New York.Do you find that this sounds like a lot of money? You are not the only one. Many have noticed that American transit projects, including California's high-speed rail and the Second Avenue Subway, are extremely expensive. Alon Levy and Eric Goldwyn are leading the Transit Costs Project at New York University. They want to find out why this has happened. Nearly a decade ago Levy presented some options for Amtrak to achieve Japan-grade high speed rail at a fraction of the $150 billion cost Amtrak had outlined.AdvertisementAmtrak doesn't care how much the stuff costs. How can I be certain of this? It was March, and I had the opportunity to ask Amtrak CEO William Flynn. I was particularly interested in Flynn's explanation of the $11.6 billion cost tag for the Hudson River Tunnel Project. This project costs almost $3 billion per mile according to Transit Costs Project. Flynn stated that he didn't believe it was so expensive.AdvertisementIt will be the most expensive tunnel to build, aside from two other New York City projects that at least include some stations. It will cost twice as much to build as London's Crossrail and five times more than the Paris extension of Line 1. Those projects also have stations!AdvertisementCynical counterargument: Advocates should stop worrying about this stuff since highway builders are not as rigorous in their scrutiny of transit capital projects. To take Amtrak to task would be unilateral disarmament. It will only perpetuate the status-quo in which highways get funded and transit is deemed wasteful.I propose an ingenious compromise. Amtrak should continue to operate until Congress issues the check. It should then bring in experts from Japan and France or Spain. Amtrak could spend $66 billion as any country around the globe, and we would have train service that is more like the Shinkansen/TGV. * This would be a great legacy for Joe Biden in passenger-rail.
