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Two dedicated high-speed rail lines are now under construction in the US, promising to bring transportation technology that has long been commonplace in Europe, Japan and China. More routes are being studied, with at least five in the planning stages. “We’re just warming up,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at the 2024 US High-Speed Rail Conference in May.
“There [have] maps have been floating around for years, if not decades, that represent a high-speed rail network across the country,” said Ezra Silk, policy director of the US High-Speed Rail Coalition, an advocacy group for the industry and labor. Silk sees the US reaching a “tipping point” as soon as the first of these new projects starts operating. “We have to have a real portfolio of projects across the country if we’re going to move forward towards the national system in time to deal with climate change,” he said.
The coalition today released a 20-page guide for high-speed rail advocates on how to start organizing, build political and community support, and find initial and long-term funding. “We’re really trying to put this in the hands of local leaders who care about their regions and understand that maybe this could be one of the most transformative things that’s happened since the interstate highway system,” Silk said.
The document lists five stages of the high-speed rail life cycle: project initiation, project development, final design, construction and operations. “It starts with recognizing that it’s going to be a complicated undertaking that will require a multifaceted effort to pull off,” said Bernard Cohen, lead author of the guide and senior planning and operations advisor at Alternate Concepts, a Boston-based firm. traffic service provider.
The guide outlines the initial steps of an HSR project. First, Cohen said, “You have to start thinking about building a mature organization. Second, you have to start engaging with organizations and people who might be interested in supporting a high-speed rail project. speed and you have to work with them to start building those relationships. The third thing is you have to start technical planning.”
Initial steps include lining up potential supporters, conducting a preliminary feasibility study, identifying risks and obstacles, and developing a policy outreach strategy. “Optimism, which is really important at this stage, has to be tempered with a realistic idea of what the risks are,” Cohen said, “because projects like high-speed rail are going to have very strong supporters and inevitably they will invoke some opposition”.
Even at an early stage, funding will be needed for planning and marketing materials. Cohen suggested asking businesses in the area that the new HSR line will serve for money, as it could bring them a wider pool of potential employees. Advocates should also explore local and federal funding options and consider reaching out to unions that could benefit from job creation, he said.
The roadmap encourages advocates to create a diverse group of followers with different skills. Cohen named expertise in communications, community engagement and technical planning as key additions to the team. But the most important skill set for a leader, he said, is the “ability to define and articulate the vision of what high-speed rail could do for their region… That person has to have credibility . [and] he needs to have good contacts with important players in the region”.
Cohen said he believes the roadmap “may be helpful in circumventing some of the challenges that create a more drawn-out process.”
But Silk warned that launching a campaign for what will be a multibillion-dollar project is “not for the faint of heart”. He said: “These are some of the largest and most complicated infrastructure projects in the world, and delivering them to the US is a challenge.”
More than 3 billion passengers ride high-speed trains around the world each year, but just over 12 million ride America’s only high-speed rail line on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, where Acela trains reach speeds of 150 mph. According to the International Union of Railroads, the United States has fewer miles of high-speed rail than 10 other countries.
“We’re really going to need a series of campaigns in every major region of the country, from the ground up, pushing for these high-speed rail corridors,” Silk said. “Now is the time to strike.”
